The film is thought to have earned in excess of $10 million in advance bookings.

The Force is strong in Star Wars' spiritual home.

With less than two days before its official release in the U.K., where much of the film was shot, Star Wars: The Force Awakens has already blown advance sales records to pieces.

Vue, the largest cinema group outside of the U.S. with 804 screens in the U.K., tells The Hollywood Reporter that it has sold in excess of 355,000 tickets, arranging for an additional 200 screens for opening day, Thursday, and a further 100 for the opening weekend.

Phil Clap, CEO of the U.K. Cinema Association, said Vue's figures come in addition to 500,000 advanced bookings at Odeon, the U.K.'s largest cinema chain, and those of other exhibitors, putting the total number of pre-sales "way beyond 1 million," suggesting that The Force Awakens should already have earned, even by a conservative estimate, in excess of $10 million.

"With an average ticket price of maybe £7 [$10.60] or more, you can do the math," he tells THR.

While the latest James Bond installment, Spectre -- which held the previous advance sales record -- may have recently fallen short in its efforts to top Skyfall's U.K. box office record of £103 million ($156 million), The Force Awakens now looks likely to become the most successful film in British history.

"The numbers far exceed anything we've seen before for any movie in the U.K," said Clap.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has its European premiere in London on Wednesday and will be released across the U.K. on Thursday, with many cinemas putting on 12:01 a.m. screenings.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is shaping up to become a cinematic event with few equals.

Pent-up excitement for the return of Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, Han Solo, and a raft of interplanetary film icons is powering the seventh film in the science-fiction franchise towards a record opening weekend. Disney, the company that plunked down $4 billion and change for the rights to George Lucas’ brainchild, is in the enviable position of downplaying expectations, but rival studios and industry analysts believe that “The Force Awakens” will open to $210 million or more, establishing a new high-water mark. Of course, when a film has this kind of awareness surrounding it, the methodology for projecting a specific box office result is about as scientific as the four humors of Hippocratic medicine.

Flaws in the predictive model aside, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest the film will be huge. The film has already set a record for pre-sales, moving more than $50 million in tickets, and should at the very least shatter “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’s” record December launch of $84.6 million. “The Force Awakens” will roll out across more than 4,100 theaters in North America, 392 of which will be IMAX screens and more than 3,300 of which will be 3D locations.

It will also be in most of the known world. The one major exception being China, where “The Force Awakens” lands on Jan. 9. That massive distribution campaign also has some predicting that the latest excursion to a galaxy far, far away will top “Jurassic World’s” record-setting $525.5 million global bow.

Should “The Force Awakens” fall short of a record, it can content itself with enviable placement on the calendar (as well as millions of BB-8 toys sold and stuffed into stockings). Next week is the launch of the Christmas/New Year’s corridor, a two-week movie-going bonanza that routinely fills multiplexes’ coffers. That means that “The Force Awakens” could conceivably rack up far in excess of $400 million before 2016 starts.

Bringing the Skywalker clan back to the big screen cost at least $200 million to produce and the gross product of Endor to market, but that will be a small price to pay if “The Force Awakens” can bolster interest in the series and kick-off a series of planned sequels, spin-offs, and origin stories. Disney’s ambition is for LucasFilm to join Marvel and Pixar in its arsenal of top-shelf movie brands.

Even with “Star Wars” dominating the cultural conversation, a few films will venture out and try to siphon off ticket-buyers. Universal’s “Sisters,” which reunites the “Baby Mama” team of Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, will likely pull in $13 million from 2,950 theaters this weekend. The picture about aging sisters throwing a blow-out bash in their childhood home cost $30 million to make.

Fox is also trying to ensnare younger children, who may be frightened by all things Kylo Ren, with “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip.” The fourth installment in the popular family series should make $12 million from 3,650 locations. The studio believes the film will show some endurance throughout the holiday season when school is out of session.

That includes $50 million to $60 million in advance ticket sales for the film's opening weekend. Force Awakens, which held its world premiere Monday night in Los Angeles, begins rolling out Thursday night before playing everywhere Friday morning.

Disney continued to decline comment on advance tickets sales. In recent days, theater owners have been adding screenings of the film to accommodate demand, with studio insiders stressing there are still plenty of seats available over opening weekend. In order to play the movie, theaters have to commit to carrying Force Awakens for four to five weeks.

The previous record-holder for advance ticket sales was The Dark Knight Rises in 2012 with $25 million. Sources say Force Awakens sales could even be north of $120 million.

On Tuesday, online ticketing service Fandango reported that Force Awakens has become the company's top-selling title in the company's 15-year history in terms of advance ticket sales, outpacing such record-setters as Avengers: Age of Ultron and this summer's Jurassic World, which debuted to a historic $208.8 million domestically.

MovieTickets.com also reports record advance ticket sales, saying Force Awakens has sold more than double the number that Age of Ultron did and 20 percent more than Jurassic World.

Tracking services suggest Force Awakens will debut in the $180 million-$220 million range in North America. December isn't known for huge openings, since many consumers are distracted by holiday preparations and holiday travel the weekend before Christmas. Rather, holiday titles can have huge multiples, thanks to the stretch between Christmas and New Year's weekend being the most lucrative corridor of the year in terms of moviegoing.

Well, I'm not sure if a new topic will be created for those who have seen the movie, but let me just say from a midnight-attendee down under to those who are still waiting - it was far better than I had hoped for! Good night!

Now that Star Wars: The Force Awakens is officially out in theatres, you can review the movie but please try not to include any spoilers because some of the members on this site might not see it on opening weekend. So let's be considerate and don't post any spoilers unless you go to the spoilers page for this movie.

Daisy Ridley On Why “I’ll Make A Man Out of You” from Mulan Got Her Into Character

If you’ve never heard of Daisy Ridley, the 23-year-old British actress who plays scavenger Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, don’t feel bad. Why? Well, because Star Wars: The Force Awakens is her big screen debut. That’s right: her first movie is the most colossally anticipated film, possibly ever.

And yet, when we sat down to talk to her at the end of a very long press day at the Los Angeles Convention Center, she seemed totally at ease and excited. She was feeling under the weather; you could hear it in her voice and in the way she didn’t extend her hand when we started chatting (understandable since she’s been out promoting Star Wars: The Force Awakens for months now). You could still sense that she is thrilled – thrilled to be in a movie at all, thrilled to be in a Star Wars movie, and thrilled to be an empowered icon for young girls everywhere. (Trust us when we say, she will be a true inspiration after this movie opens.)

We talked about all of this, plus why she listened to “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from Mulan to get into character, what she thought after seeing the film, and her favorite Star Wars toy.

You just said that listening to “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from Mulan would pump you up.

I just really love that song, and it makes me feel empowered. There are days when you feel tired and you need to get the energy up, and that’s when I would listen to it.

What about that song speaks to Rey?

She’s a girl trying to find her way in the big bad world. Obviously, the two stories are very different. But that sequence and that song, of her finding her strength, it’s really powerful.

In the press conference, you mentioned that you didn’t grow up a Star Wars fan. Since going on this whole journey have you become more versed?

I have. I feel like I’m representing some people who haven’t, because there are some people who aren’t huge fans. And as an actress I feel like it’s nice to have that distance, because ultimately I’m just an actress in a film. To be a part of that is fantastic, but to remember that it is just a film is also great.

When you got the part, you were excited.

Yes, when I got it, I was excited that I was going to be in a film. Then you add on all of the extra stuff, and that only adds to that excitement, but ultimately I was like, “Oh my gosh, I get to work on something for longer than two weeks.”

You’re about to be in a hugely iconic film. Do you think about going from never being in a film to being recognized on the street?

I think it’s weird; the thought of being recognized and stuff isn’t something that I ever really wanted. But if I’m recognized because Rey had a meaningful impact on their life and they love Rey, or their kid loves Rey, or young women can see something in Rey that they don’t see so much in cinema, I can only see that as a good thing.

Is there one action figure you love more than the others?

I’m really excited about Disney Infinity coming out.

Have you seen the film?

Yes.

Take us on your emotional journey while watching it.

Gee, if I knew what to tell you, I would. Oscar saw it last night and he reacted the same way I did. It’s very overwhelming. It’s difficult to process. I’m excited to see it again, so hopefully I can take more away from it. Me and John haven’t even had a chance to talk about it. He rang me after he watched it because we didn’t watch it together, but it would be nice to talk to him about it.

Is everything you wanted to do with the character in that final film?

No. I’m proud of Rey’s contribution, and the story and the writing is stunning. But I didn’t love myself in it.

You’ve talked about the physicality of these characters. Did that help you a lot?

What was funny was when I was working with Simon Pegg, because he’s in heavy prosthetics. And I was talking to him for ages and then he took his head off and I was really shy, because it’s like, “You’re not who I was talking to. I was talking to this other character and now I feel very odd.” It was really weird. I think that goes to show how much practical effects can help. Because I didn’t feel like I was talking to him.

But Lupita’s character is completely computer-generated. What did you think when you finally saw her in the movie?

Well, it was interesting because we had seen sketches of Lupita as we went along, so working with her we had an idea of what she was going to look like. It does have an impact. It would be weird if we had no idea what she was going to end up looking like. It was good to know the overall sense of what she would be. But to see it finished was crazy amazing. It’s also crazy because obviously it’s computer generated, but she’s under there somewhere, she brought that to life. The technology is just incredible.

You get to work with one of the breakouts of the movie, BB-8. How would you describe your relationship with BB-8?

Rey and BB-8’s relationship is really lovely. He is the first thing that ever interacts with Rey on an equal level. So that, I think for Rey, is really wonderful. He’s along for the journey that she and Finn go on. It’s just pure and wonderful. And I love BB-8. So it’s all good.

There are so many strong female characters in this movie. What is it like adding to that legacy?

It’s amazing. To be guided by Kathy Kennedy and obviously for Rey to be written by J.J., who has created so many incredible female roles in everything he’s done. So that’s wonderful. And to be a part of something, not for the sake of it, but being a strong story that Rey carries through—she has a genuine impact. So to be a part of that is absolutely amazing.

Do you feel bad when something goes wrong in a take?

Yes, I corpsed in Abu Dhabi. I was working with Simon Pegg and the part he plays is just incredible. And he did something with his face, and it was so funny. I full-blown laughed. Of course the terror is there, because I always used to laugh in school in the middle of really important service sand stuff, and I was thinking about this when I laughed. And then J.J. said, “Don’t worry about all of these people in their really heavy costumes.” It was so, so hot. And I did feel awful. But it was also amazing.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens arrives in a galaxy near you on December 18.

Walt Disney Co. Chairman and CEO Bob Iger has sent Disney employees a thank-you letter just ahead of the company’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” release, which is expected to generate massive worldwide box office.

Iger opened the letter — sent Wednesday — by noting that Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012, adding that three years later the film’s launch marks “one of the proudest and most exciting moments in our Company’s history.”

He added, “Unless you’ve been in a galaxy far, far away for the last few months, you’re probably aware that the global interest in this movie is absolutely stunning. Given the unprecedented excitement, we’re certainly expecting a very successful opening this weekend. (Okay, that may be the understatement of the century, but I’m trying to contain my enthusiasm!)”

“The Force Awakens” is already opening in a few international markets and is expected to open north of $200 million when it bows in the U.S. on Thursday evening.

“Kathy’s leadership has been key in successfully integrating Lucasfilm into Disney and in getting this historic movie made; and J.J. has directed and delivered an epic film that we are extremely proud of, one we know that millions of Star Wars fans—past, present, and future—will embrace,” he added.

“It’s been thrilling to see the remarkable level of teamwork behind this effort—every single business unit across the Company has been part of launching this movie and building the future of this franchise, ensuring it will generate value for our Company for generations to come.”

Iger succeeded Michael Eisner as Disney’s chief executive in 2005 and led the 2006 acquisition of Pixar, the 2009 buyout of Marvel Studios and the Lucasfilm deal.

“In the 10 years I’ve had the privilege of leading this phenomenal company, you have never ceased to amaze me through your talent, your dedication, and your hard work,” he said in the letter. “This has been another tremendous year, marked by creative triumphs, innovative leaps, strategic wins, and financial successes. We’ve risen to challenges, embraced change, and delivered our fifth straight year of record performance in the process.”

Iger concluded the missive by predicting robust performance in 2016.

“We’ll carry this momentum into a new year that promises to be our best yet, with the opening of Shanghai Disney Resort and an unprecedented pipeline of great new content on the way from the strongest brands in the business—Disney, ESPN, ABC, Pixar, Marvel and, of course, Star Wars.”

“Thank you for continuing to raise the bar and making it possible for us to achieve big, bold, ambitious goals. I wish you a wonderful holiday season and a very happy and prosperous New Year. (In other words—May the Force Be With You!)”

The entire letter follows:

Dear Fellow Employee,

It’s hard to believe it’s been three years since we welcomed Lucasfilm into our Company… and that we’re now on the eve of releasing Star Wars: The Force Awakens, one of the proudest and most exciting moments in our Company’s history.

Unless you’ve been in a galaxy far, far away for the last few months, you’re probably aware that the global interest in this movie is absolutely stunning. Given the unprecedented excitement, we’re certainly expecting a very successful opening this weekend. (Okay, that may be the understatement of the century, but I’m trying to contain my enthusiasm!)

As we get ready to share Star Wars: The Force Awakens with the world, I want to personally thank Alan Horn and everyone at The Walt Disney Studios and Lucasfilm for their phenomenal production and marketing efforts, particularly Kathy Kennedy and J.J. Abrams. Kathy’s leadership has been key in successfully integrating Lucasfilm into Disney and in getting this historic movie made; and J.J. has directed and delivered an epic film that we are extremely proud of, one we know that millions of Star Wars fans—past, present, and future—will embrace.

It’s been thrilling to see the remarkable level of teamwork behind this effort—every single business unit across the Company has been part of launching this movie and building the future of this franchise, ensuring it will generate value for our Company for generations to come.

We often talk about our people as the Company’s greatest strength and most valuable resource, because it’s true. In a business like ours, driven by creativity and innovation, nothing is more important than the men and women who dream of new possibilities, set new standards of excellence, and create new opportunities, then work together to achieve them. And we’re so fortunate to have thousands of cast members and employees around the world who accept the challenge and embody that spirit.

On the eve of yet another historic milestone, I offer my heartfelt thanks for everything you do to make The Walt Disney Company what it is today.

In the 10 years I’ve had the privilege of leading this phenomenal company, you have never ceased to amaze me through your talent, your dedication, and your hard work. This has been another tremendous year, marked by creative triumphs, innovative leaps, strategic wins, and financial successes. We’ve risen to challenges, embraced change, and delivered our fifth straight year of record performance in the process.

We’ll carry this momentum into a new year that promises to be our best yet, with the opening of Shanghai Disney Resort and an unprecedented pipeline of great new content on the way from the strongest brands in the business—Disney, ESPN, ABC, Pixar, Marvel and, of course, Star Wars.

Thank you for continuing to raise the bar and making it possible for us to achieve big, bold, ambitious goals. I wish you a wonderful holiday season and a very happy and prosperous New Year. (In other words—May the Force Be With You!)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has made the American Film Institute’s list of the top 10 movies of the year. The other film honorees for the 2015 AFI Awards include The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, Carol, Inside Out, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, Room, Spotlight and Straight Outta Compton.

It’s the first appearance Star Wars has had on any of the year-end awards lists, since Disney did not screen the film for critics and other awards groups in advance of its Dec. 14 world premiere. But the AFI postponed its awards meeting from earlier in the month, so its jurors would have a chance to consider Star Wars before making their decision.

Walt Disney Pictures released the following highlights for the Lucasfilm release:

– Biggest single industry day of all-time in Norway and Sweden.– Biggest industry opening day of all-time in Belgium, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland (French-speaking).– Biggest Disney opening day of all-time in France, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, South Africa and Switzerland (French-speaking).– Biggest opening day of 2015 in Belgium, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland (French-speaking).– All markets are the biggest Star Wars opening days ever.– France – #1 opening with biggest ever December, Disney and Star Wars opening day. More than double the opening day of Avengers and almost double the opening day of Jurassic World.– Italy – #1 opening with biggest ever December and Star Wars opening day. Almost double the opening day of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.– Several markets posted the biggest IMAX opening day of all-time.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens continues rolling out internationally with another 32 material international markets opening up today, including Germany, UK, Russia, Australia, Korea, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Japan and Spain then also open up tomorrow so that by the weekend the movie will be open in all international markets around the world with the exception of China, India and Greece.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has finally arrived. Audiences across the globe now have a chance to experience the first Star Wars film in over ten years and anticipation couldn't be higher. Star Wars changed movies forever when the saga began back in 1977 and this newest installment enters a marketplace where the industry itself has changed, several times over, in the 38 years since we all began to feel the Force.

The film landed on Wednesday in 12 international markets, generating $14.1 million including $5.2 million in France, $2 million in Italy and another $1.7 million in Sweden. Force Awakens arrives in 32 more international markets today, including Germany, UK, Russia, Australia, Korea, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico with Japan and Spain opening day-and-date with the U.S. release on Friday.

As for that U.S. release and the world market overall, things have even changed since 2009, the last time Christmas Day fell on a Friday and a film called Avatar began its journey to becoming the highest grossing domestic and worldwide release of all time. The Force Awakens aims to best both those records and then some. Let's take a look at its chances.

The Force Awakens was already breaking records before a single frame was exhibited. Disney originally estimated it would open in 3,900 theaters, that total has since jumped to 4,134, a record number of theaters for a December opening. It has also broken advanced ticket sales with $100+ million (approximately $55 million of that attributed to the film's opening weekend), besting the $25 million set by previous record holder The Dark Knight Rises in 2012. Online ticketing service Fandango.com, which experienced technical difficulties as soon as advanced tickets went on sale, is reporting record ticket sales, with Force Awakens breaking Fandango's record for the most tickets sold for any film during its entire theatrical run.

Records such as these offer a glimpse at what's to come, as we put under the microscope an unprecedented release that's nearly impossible to predict. You'll need more than two hands to count the number of records Force Awakens is looking to break as the domestic opening weekend record of $208.8 million, set earlier this year by Jurassic World, is only one of them. Here are a few to consider:

* Midnight only** Holiday is defined as the first Friday in November through New Year's week or weekend.

Many of these records come into consideration when predicting the film's opening weekend, beginning with the Thursday preshow number, a number that has changed meaning over the last several years. As noted above, when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 broke the record with $43.5 million from 3,800 theaters at midnight screenings, they were just that, midnight screenings. The Force Awakens, however, will begin screening at 7 PM on Thursday in a large fraction of its 4,134 opening weekend theaters. Midnight showings accounted for nearly 48% of Deathly Hallows 2's record opening day of $91 million and with theaters already selling out Thursday screenings of Force Awakens, it stands to reason that record will fall. Fan fervor over Star Wars is no less than the excitement for that final Harry Potter film.

So how big will Friday be? For starters, no film has ever made $100 million in a single day. For Force Awakens this seems like a possibility with Thursday preshows counting for Friday's number. Thursday preshows for Jurassic World brought in a mere $18.5 million from 3,229 theaters, which resulted in an $81.9 million opening day. Comparatively, Avengers: Age of Ultron grossed $84.4 million on its first Friday, which included $27.6 million from Thursday screenings, but its 33% drop on Saturday sunk its chances at a $200+ million opening weekend. Jurassic World earned its opening weekend record by holding on very well over the following days.

Let's say for a second Force Awakens becomes the first film to bring in $100 million on Friday. If it follows Jurassic World's Saturday and Sunday drops (15% and 17.9% respectively) we're looking at a $254.7 million weekend. If we performed the same calculations based on Age of Ultron's weekend drops (33% and 11%) we're looking at a $226.5 million opening. Both break the current opening weekend record as well as the per theater record, a record that is significant.

December has never had a film open higher than $100 million, or a single day gross higher than $37.1 million for that matter. This is the time of year where people are spending time with families as they take time off work and spend time with their children on break from school. The opportunity to see a new movie is spread out over time, eliminating the summertime "need" to see a movie on opening weekend. No matter how big Star Wars opens, it's these factors that suggest it is almost guaranteed to have great legs, just as Avatar did in 2009 when it opened on the same weekend and dropped a mere 1.8% over Christmas weekend. Right now only one fifth of all schools are on break while next weekend we're looking at 100% of all children being out of school. This, along with holiday travel and last second shopping, could result in slightly softer numbers for this weekend than had the film opened during the summer months.

If you're looking for another reason as to why Star Wars may not break Jurassic World's domestic opening record you need look no further than the current, monthly record holders. Looking at all twelve months, American Sniper shows the largest percent increase over the previous record holder as its $89.2 million opening was a 115% increase over Ride Along. Should Force Awakens match that increase as it relate's to The Hobbit's December record you're looking at a $181.9 million weekend. In fact, only three times has a monthly record been broken by a percentage that would give Force Awakens the record:

In short, it's difficult to not only break records, but even more difficult to break records by a large margin. And yet, Star Wars: The Force Awakens may very well be the most anticipated film of all-time and given the nature of our "give it to me now" culture, predicting an opening weekend record doesn't seem risky or difficult. Predicting just how big it will be is a different story.

Working in the film's favor is the fact it will be playing in over 3,300 3D locations, on a record 392 IMAX screens, on 451 Premium Large Format screens and in 146 D-Box locations. The higher ticket prices for all of these locations along with the swath of positive reviews (just in case you were on the fence) only work to the film's benefit, especially when it comes to predicting how much it will make per theater.

The $48,855 per theater record set by Jurassic World is probably the most significant number we have to work with. Jurassic World opened in 4,274 theaters and the fact Star Wars is opening in 140 fewer already helps up that average. To break the record Force Awakens will need to average over $50,510 per theater, we're predicting a $55,899 average for a record-breaking $231 million opening. This number is based on a $95M Friday, $71.2M Saturday (25% drop) and $64.8M Sunday (9% drop). The biggest difficulty, making for what will be the largest margin of error, is just how many screens it will be playing on in each of those theaters and how many times per screen.

Beyond opening weekend, the average multipliers in 2014 and 2015 were 3.15 and 3.01 respectively. For films opening in 4,000+ theaters that drops to 2.91 for 2014 and 2.57 in 2015. However, the average multiplier for the top opening weekends of all-time climbs to 3.24 and if you look at the two films that opened over $200 million, Jurassic World and The Avengers have 3.12 and 3.01 multipliers, which sets something of a baseline. All things considered a 3-3.5 times multiplier seems a safe approximation. This would put the overall domestic gross at $693-808.5 million, which means Avatar's all-time domestic record of $760.5 million is in some jeopardy.

Internationally it's tough to predict, though Disney isn't holding back, going day-and-date in all major international territories other than China, where the film opens on January 9. To that point, Jurassic World opened with a record $316.1 million internationally, which included over $99 million from China. However, the previous record holder was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 and it didn't open in China until a couple weeks after its initial release and it managed a $314 million opening internationally. So go ahead and expect a record breaking opening internationally and across the globe with anywhere from $575-650 million worldwide.

The weekend isn't all Star Wars, though you'd be hard-pressed to argue otherwise. Fox is releasing Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip into 3,653 theaters and Universal brings the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler comedy Sisters to 2,961 theaters. Neither is likely to make too much of an impression on the box office, though the more they make the more the overall weekend tally grows and that $266 million opening weekend record for the top twelve is challenged.

Road Chip is likely to take the #2 spot, though this is a franchise that stumbled a bit with Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked back in 2011 as it's opening weekend dropped 52% compared to its predecessor. With a large number of animated films having been released recently there's hardly any pent up demand for more animated antics, at least not from a franchise that appears to be on life support. Another 52% drop would see the film bringing in $11 million, but we'll go a bit higher at $12.7 million in the name of holiday cheer.

Sisters is a little more difficult. When Jurassic World broke the record earlier this year Spy still managed $15.6 million opposite it in its second weekend, proving there is room for comedy opposite the big, bad blockbuster. Fey and Poehler have proven a strong comedic duo with Baby Mama opening with $17.4 million back in 2008, but the lack of competition makes for a difficult comparison with that title. Otherwise, Fey has managed to stay in the spotlight, the duo was wonderful at the Golden Globes in recent years and reviews of Sisters have been solid, but an opening around $11.1 million is our target number, though it could prove much higher as a solid bit of counter-programming.

As for the rest of the top ten, Star Wars captures such a wide breadth of the movie-going audience its likely most will fall a bit sharper than the competition did when The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey set the previous December opening record in 2012. However, like with the Star Wars prediction, it's tough to nail down exactly how this weekend will shake out. That said, weekend predictions are below.

‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Becomes Best-Selling Movie of All Time on Fandango

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” hasn’t even opened yet and the science-fiction fantasy has already sold more tickets than any other film in history on Fandango.

The seventh film in the hit franchise previously shattered pre-sales records, but now the online ticketer reports that it has sold more tickets than any film has moved during its entire theatrical run.

To earn the record, “The Force Awakens” moved past “Jurassic World.” The rest of the top five biggest sellers are “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” and “The Hunger Games.”

Fandango did not release the total number of tickets sold, but sources tell Variety that “The Force Awakens” has already generated more than $100 million in pre-sales and that seats have been purchased into 2016. Industry analysts believe that “The Force Awakens” will break “Jurassic World’s” record $208.4 million opening to become the biggest debut in history.

Worried that talk of packed houses might dissuade people from hitting theaters, Disney stressed that there are still seats available when “The Force Awakens” opens on Thursday.

“We are obviously very encouraged by the record-breaking presales for ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens,'” Dave Hollis, Disney’s distribution chief said in a statement. “But there are literally millions of tickets available for this weekend, and exhibitors have a lot of flexibility in terms of capacity and increasing the number of shows based on demand.”

Industrial Light & Magic (Official FB) - With this being Star Wars Eve, we thought we would take a moment to acknowledge the hard work contributed by so many artists, technicians, scientists, engineers and production folks around the world to bring you The Force Awakens.

Our team in San Francisco, Singapore, Vancouver and London are a passionate bunch and they, like everyone who touched this film, gave 110% to ensure that it lives up to expectations, a high bar if there ever was one. We hope that you, your friends and your families enjoy it as much as we enjoyed working on it.

We would also like to give a shout out to our partners at BASE FX, Hybride, Kelvin Optical, Virtuous and Disney Research who contributed effects work to the film. It takes a village to create visual effects for a film such as Star Wars and we could not have asked for a more dedicated crew.

From all of us here at ILM we hope you enjoy the film… May the Force Be With You.

“It’s like nothing we’ve ever seen,” one exhibition insider told us as Disney’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens is cruising toward an earth-shattering Thursday night preview record tonight. We’re literally hearing from our non-Disney sources that it could push to $50M — and some say much higher. That would be phenomenal and better than the record set by Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows-Part 2, which made $43.5M from midnight showings in 2011. From Valencia, CA to New York City, shows are selling out back-to-back. “Every time a show is added, it sells out,” said another exhibitor.

In Manhattan, some theaters are playing Force Awakens 24/7. By 4:50 PM today at Edwards suburban Valencia 12, 30 minutes north of L.A., the first four shows of the night starting at 7 PM were completely sold out, with a throng of folks clustered outside the multiplex since 10AM. At the Landmark Theatre on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, Force Awakens is playing seven times tonight, with most theaters packing in an 80% capacity. We’ve heard of some West Coast theaters playing the film until 4:30 AM.

“I can tell you this: No one has ever seen anything like this,” said one distribution insider. “It’s very possible that it could go over $50M.” The exec also says that if theaters are playing this film all night long, The Force Awakens can get to $100M in one of the fastest times ever.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was among the 20 film and TV works saluted in the 16th annual AFI Awards, announced Wednesday.

The awards are usually unveiled in the first week of December, but the American Film Institute had announced that voting would be delayed a week, to accommodate the tightly-under-wraps “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” which had its world premiere Dec. 14. But the judges bypassed other late-year entries, including “The Revenant,” “Joy” and “Hateful Eight.”

'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Crushes Records, Topping Largest Box Office Weekend of All Time

Star Wars: The Force Awakens stormed the box office and walked away with $247.9 million in its first three days domestically (including $57 million in Thursday night "previews") along with another $281 million internationally for a massive $528.9 million worldwide opening. Suffice to say, this shatters the domestic box office opening weekend record of $208.8 million set by Jurassic World earlier this year as well as the worldwide opening weekend record, but the record-breaking doesn't end there.

In just its first day of release Force Awakens brought in $119.1 million setting a new record for the largest Friday, opening day and single day. All on its own, that opening day was also enough to break the previous December opening weekend record of $84.62 million set by The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in 2012. Additionally, the film now holds the following domestic records:

* The Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 record included midnight only screenings while Force Awakens screenings began at 7 PM on Thursday and included Star Wars marathon ticket sales, tickets that were sold for as much as $59.99 each.** Holiday is defined as the first Friday in November through New Year's week or weekend.

Domestically, Force Awakens did fall short of one record, the largest Saturday number, which is held by Jurassic World at $69.6 million. However, does anyone think it won't be topping the Monday record of $27.6 million set by Spider-Man 2 back in 2004? Subsequent weekend records are also up for grabs along with the fastest to $300 million and so on, not to mention the overall domestic record currently held by Avatar at $760.5 million.

Based on averages over the past couple of years, a 3-3.5 multiplier doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility, which would put the domestic run somewhere around $714-833 million. However, with Force Awakens playing somewhat similarly to how Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 played during its opening weekend, Potter's 2.5 multiplier can't be overlooked, which would give the film a $565 million domestic run. That said, Potter dipped a massive 72% in its second weekend. With Christmas around the corner, Star Wars definitely won't be dropping that much next weekend, but we're talking about uncharted territory here, which makes a future forecast just as difficult as it was predicting the film's opening weekend.

Internationally Force Awakens brought in $281 million, falling short of Jurassic World's international opening weekend record of $316.1 million, but globally the domestic box office helped propel it to a new worldwide record. With $528.9 million, Force Awakens topped Jurassic World's previous global record by $4.1 million, the difference being the nearly $40 million more Star Wars took in at the domestic box office.

That international opening wasn't short on records either as it included the largest opening weekends of all-time in the UK (4-day), Australia, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Austria, Poland (3-day), Denmark (5-day), Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Ukraine, Iceland, Serbia, New Zealand. Second biggest opening weekend in France, Belgium, Israel and Chile. The top grossing territories were the UK ($50.6M), Germany ($27.5M), France ($22.5M), Australia ($19.6M) and Japan ($13.4M).

Key among this opening is the fact it has not yet opened in China, which generated over $99 million for Jurassic World on its opening weekend. However, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out earlier this week, Star Wars isn't the known quantity in China it is elsewhere in the world. In fact, it wasn't until June of this year that the first three films in the franchise were first screened in China at the Shanghai international film festival and the Star Wars prequels only grossed a combined $18.7 million upon their 1999, 2002 and 2005 release. Disney has done a huge marketing push in China, but we'll have to wait until the weekend of January 9 to see if it pays off.

It by far surpasses the number of tweets triggered by “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip” and “Sisters,” this weekend’s other openers

In the days leading up to the highly-anticipated release of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” tweets about the film have been off the charts — even beating this year’s other big blockbusters, “Jurassic World” and “Avengers: Age of Ultron.”

On Dec. 11, with a week to go before the movie’s release, 126,167 tweets were posted about the film. For comparison, a week before “Avengers: Age of Ultron” came out in May, 72,045 tweets were sent. “Jurassic World” generated just 34,434 tweets seven days before its June debut.

But for all three, activity spiked with four days to go before their respective releases, only increasing with the approach of opening day. For example, on Wednesday, two days removed from “The Force Awakens,” 745,426 tweets were posted, nearly five times as many as “Jurassic World” and almost 10 times as many as “Avengers: Age of Ultron” at the same point.

In all, there were more than four times as many tweets for “Star Wars” as there were for “Age of Ultron” and “Jurassic World.” “Star Wars” garnered over 1.9 million tweets in the past week.

On Facebook, “Star Wars” and “Age of Ultron” are closer than they are on Twitter. With three days to go until debut, they boasted 15.7 million and 13.6 million likes, respectively. “Jurassic World” claimed around 5.6 million Facebook likes at the same point.

This week’s other openings, “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip” and “Sisters,” garnered just 5,978 and 3,659 tweets on Wednesday, respectively. “Star Wars” gained 347,026 Facebook likes from Dec. 11 to Dec. 16, whereas “Alvin” added 48,555 and “Sisters” increased by 28,164.

According to a Facebook spokesperson, 53 million people had 126 million interactions about “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” in the last 30 days.

See a chart of how “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” stacks up against “Jurassic World” and “Avengers: Age of Ultron” below.

Disney executives are no doubt fainting with joy right now, as Star Wars: The Force Awakens has officially landed the highest-grossing opening weekend box office haul of all time, bringing in $247 million in the United States alone, and an astonishing $529 million total global take. It should therefore come as no shock that, according to newly-released data from Facebook, the return to the galaxy far, far away is also one of the most-talked about films of all time.

From Wednesday, December 16 when early showings of The Force Awakens kicked off in Britain through last night, 64 million people worldwide had 140 million interactions (including likes, comments, and shares) about it on Facebook. The opening weekend conversation was dominated by the Anglosphere, with The United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Ireland rounding out the top five countries where users were most engaged following the film’s release. Interestingly, in the U.S. the conversation online wasn’t dominated by the largest states: users in Utah were most engaged on Facebook, with New Mexico, Arizona, Idaho and Oregon completing the list.

To put these numbers in perspective, the Facebook discussion during the 5-days since The Force Awakens rolled into theaters was larger than the discussion over the preceding month. In that 30-day period, approximately 53 million people had 126 million interactions, according to Facebook. Demonstrating the importance of social media in film marketing, users invited over two million friends and family to over 35,000 Star Wars-related events, with approximately 1/3 of those attending planning to do so from more than 50 miles away.

Perhaps a reflection of the film’s highly-lauded diverse casting, the conversation bucked conventional wisdom regarding beloved geek properties, with women making up 52% of those joining in, though men interacted more often. Reflecting the franchise’s near-40 year history and its seminal place in the childhood of Generation X, 35-54 year-olds were most passionately engaged, with the demo rating the most interactions per person. Despite this, the largest age group involved in the discussion was, unsurprisingly, the far more social media-active 18-34 year-old group.

Overall, the top five countries that have been most engaged in discussion of the film in the 30-day period leading up to its premiere were the United States, Australia, The United Kingdom, Iceland, and Singapore. In the U.S., the states most engaged were Utah, Alaska, Idaho, New Mexico, and Oregon.

Data provided by Relish Mix just before The Force Awakens hit theaters further fleshes out the story of fan engagement. In line with 2015’s other box office-exploding franchise installments like Jurassic World and Furious 7, Disney and Lucasfilm’s social media strategy prior to the film’s launch was very successful, ultimately reaching more than 667 million people on Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube as of December 16. The film reached 85.5 million Facebook users, with 5.7 million Twitter followers, 1 million YouTube subscribers, and 574 million YouTube views.

So, what were these people talking about? In the week prior to the film’s launch, Darth Vader was the single most-talked about Star Wars character, followed by Han Solo and Chewbacca. Broken down by gender however, men were most likely to talk about Luke Skywalker, followed by Jar Jar Binks, and then Chewbacca. (No doubt it’s a concern that transcends gender, but men clearly care about the fact that Jar Jar isn’t in the film quite a bit.) Women on the other hand, surprisingly were most likely to talk about Chewbacca, followed by Darth Vader, and then Princess Leia.

The film will be unveiled in the booming China market on Dec. 27 at the Shanghai Grand Theatre.

Now that Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a smash hit around the world, one final PR and marketing push remains for Disney — China, the world's second-largest movie market.

The film will be given its China premiere at the Shanghai Grand Theatre on the evening of Dec. 27. Newly minted franchise stars Daisy Ridley and John Boyega, along with director J.J. Abrams and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, are all confirmed to attend. Force Awakens will be shown on an IMAX screen specially built for the event. Disney says other surprise elements will be unveiled on the night.

Force Awakens opened to a staggering $517 million worldwide gross over the weekend, the second-best global debut in history after Jurassic World ($524.9 million). Jurassic World's figures, however, included a $99 million opening weekend in China. But Force Awakens doesn't get its wide release there until Jan. 9.

Disney has waged an ambitious marketing campaign to bring the local Chinese audience up to speed on the franchise, which is a surprisingly unknown entity in much of the country. Stormtroopers have mounted the Great Wall, Star Wars exhibitions are being held in shopping malls in major cities, and Lu Han, a pop star with Bieber-esque online reach, was recruited as an honorary Jedi and spokesman.

Last week, THR spoke with the CEOs of China's largest movie theater chains to get their local box office predictions for Force Awakens — the average forecast was $277.5 million, which would make the movie the second-highest grossing Hollywood title ever in the country, behind only Furious 7 ($390.1 million).

Although delayed foreign openings usually erode box office, some industry watchers have suggested that the late China release could play to Disney's advantage in this case — since Chinese filmgoers aren't particularly attached to the franchise, opening after the movie has become a global phenomenon might mean they'll be more compelled to check out what all of the fun and fuss is about.

‘Star Wars,’ ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ Push Disney Past $5 Billion Mark for First Time

Walt Disney Studios has rocketed past $5 billion for the first time in its history.

To reach those lofty heights, the Hollywood player was powered by three of its top-shelf brands — Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm, which released its first film under the Disney banner last weekend with “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” That space opera sequel shattered records, setting new high-water marks for a domestic debut with $248 million and a global launch with $529 million. Its debut shot past the records set by “Jurassic World” ($208.8 million domestic, $524.9 million worldwide).

Disney’s previous full-year record was $4.73 billion, which it set in 2013. Warner Bros. and Fox have also crossed the $5 billion barrier in other years, and Universal is the market share leader in 2015 have hit $6.8 billion globally thanks to such blockbusters as “Jurassic World” and “Furious 7.”

In addition to “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” other Disney hits this year include Marvel’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron” ($459 million domestic; $1.4 billion global), Pixar’s “Inside Out” ($356.4 million domestic; $855.4 million global), “Cinderella” ($201.1 million domestic; $542.5 million global), and Marvel’s “Ant-Man” ($180.1 million domestic; $519.1 million global).

Not everything paid off for the studio. “The Good Dinosaur” marks a rare misstep for Pixar, grossing $189.8 million on a $200 million budget.

In an unusual, although not unprecedented move, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” has received an 11th-hour Critics’ Choice Award nomination for best picture more than a week after contenders were initially announced.

The sci-fi epic, which hit theaters on Friday, has been added as the 11th best picture nominee, the Broadcast Film Critics Association announced on Tuesday. The film was not screened in time for nominations balloting so the board of directors decided to hold a special vote on Monday to determine if it would have been nominated had members been able to consider it. J.J. Abrams’ pic was thereby able to thwart the rules.

All other Critics’ Choice Award nominations remain as previously announced.

In 2000, “Cast Away” also screened too late for normal consideration and the BFCA included it among 11 best picture nominees.

The 21st Annual Critics’ Choice Awards nominations were revealed on Dec. 14, with “Mad Max: Fury Road” dominating the film race with 13 nods and FX’s “Fargo” leading TV series noms with eight.

The 21st annual Critics’ Choice Awards, hosted by T.J. Miller, will be held on Jan. 17 and air live at 5 p.m. PT on A&E, Lifetime and LMN.

The Broadcast Film Critics Association is returning to the Critics’ Choice name after splitting the awards into two ceremonies in 2010.

More box office records have fallen as Star Wars: The Force Awakens took in another $40.1 million on Monday, shattering the previous Monday record of $27.6 million set by Spider-Man 2 as it has surpassed $610 million worldwide. It is now the fastest film to hit $250 million domestically as that and other records continue to line up just so they can be knocked down.

Considering the unprecedented nature of the Force Awakens opening weekend, finding any kind of comparison isn't easy. The closest opening weekend pattern is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 as it too enjoyed a massive "preview" session and then saw a steep Saturday drop. However, Force Awakens ultimately outperformed Potter to a massive degree, making for only a brief comparison if there ever really was one.

That said, the 33.76% Monday drop for Star Wars means Potter no longer applies. Deathly Hallows Part 2 experienced a 49.4% drop on its first Monday, therefore meaning the search for an apt comparison leads to not only the best, but most obvious, the current domestic and worldwide record holder... Avatar.

2009 was the last time a Christmas fell on a Friday and that year Avatar, heading into the Christmas weekend, had the exact same drop on its first Monday. Should the trend continue, and there's little reason it wouldn't, Star Wars would top $300 million by the end of today, $400 million by midnight on Friday, $500 million by Saturday evening and close out Sunday around $580 million. There are, of course, some things to consider concerning these numbers and Tuesday's gross will obviously tell us a lot more about how this film is playing.

Should dailies hold relatively even all week we are definitely looking at an Avatar scenario. That said, looking forward to the weekend, the Avatar comparison would result in a second weekend of $185 million for Force Awakens, a 25.3% drop from its opening weekend. However, if you subtract the $57 million Thursday night previews from the Star Wars opening weekend we're only looking at a 3.1% second weekend drop.

This doesn't sound the least bit unlikely given the massive amount of tickets that were pre-sold and the fact we're talking about a Christmas weekend that saw Avatar dip only 1.8%. For those wondering, Disney has confirmed with BoxOfficeMojo.com they will not be adding any additional theaters this coming weekend, which leaves the count at 4,134.

For a full visual, the days ahead for Star Wars could look like this if it followed the exact same, daily path as Avatar:

For those interested in records, the largest second weekend of all-time is $106.5 million, set by Jurassic World earlier this year, which most certainly will fall. Star Wars also has a legitimate shot at the largest Tuesday of all-time, currently $35 million set by The Amazing Spider-Man. The numbers above would also make Star Wars the fastest film to top $300, $350, $400, $450, $500 and $550 million. In fact, it took Jurassic World 17 days to cross $500 million, by this math it would take Star Wars only nine.

As for the records it has already broken, here's a recap that includes a few not included on Mojo's traditional record list, which you can find right here:

* The Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 record included midnight only screenings while Force Awakens screenings began at 7 PM on Thursday and included Star Wars marathon ticket sales, tickets that were sold for as much as $59.99 each.** Holiday is defined as the first Friday in November through New Year's week or weekend.

Box Office: New 'Star Wars' Crosses $300M at Record Speed in North America

The movie — relaunching the classic sci-fi franchise — achieves the milestone Tuesday at the North American box office.

J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens is celebrating Tuesday by crossing the $300 million mark at the North American box office in only five days, the fastest in movie history.

The Disney and Lucasfilm release — rebooting the marquee sci-fi franchise in Jedi-like fashion — finished Monday with a domestic total of $288.1 million after a $40.1 million Monday, the biggest showing ever for the day. By midday Tuesday, its gross was north of $300 million.

Force Awakens continues to steal records from Jurassic World, which crossed $300 million in eight days, the previous fastest. (Due to the way box-office numbers are reported, Thursday-night previews are factored into Friday's haul, hence the countdown doesn't begin until Friday).

Box-office observers believe Force Awakens could beat the opening day of The Amazing Spider-Man on July 3, 2012 ($35 million) to score the biggest Tuesday of all time. Either way, it will overtake the entire domestic run of Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones ($310.7 million) by the end of the day, not accounting for inflation. Directed by George Lucas, Attack of the Clones was released in May 2002.

Among the other movies hitting $300 million in quick fashion, it took nine days for The Avengers (2012), 10 days for The Dark Knight (2008) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), 12 days for The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), 14 days for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) and Iron Man 3 (2013) and 15 days for Avatar (2009) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011).

Force Awakens has obliterated a long list of box-office records. Over the weekend, it launched to $248 million domestically and $529 million globally, wresting the crown from Jurassic World, which opened to $208.8 million in North America and $524 million worldwide.

Abrams' sequel, set 30 years after the events of Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi, features a strong female heroine in Rey, a young scavenger played by newcomer Daisy Ridley. Rey and a renegade stormtrooper (John Boyega) band together to challenge a rising evil that includes a new planet-killing laser cannon.

The film also stars Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Lupita Nyong'o and Domhnall Gleeson, along with original trilogy stars Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher.

At this rate, there's no telling how high Force Awakens will ultimately fly in terms of box-office revenue, since films over the year-end holidays can see huge multiples. James Cameron's Avatar opened to $77 million on the same weekend in 2009 on its way to becoming the top-grossing film of all time with $2.79 billion in global ticket sales, including $760.5 million domestically. And on the weekend before Christmas in 1996, Cameron's Titanic took in a mere $28.6 million on its way to grossing $2.19 billion worldwide.

UPDATE #1: Disney is reporting Star Wars: The Force Awakens brought in $37.36 million on Tuesday, enough for a new Tuesday record, topping The Amazing Spider-Man's $35 million opening day back in 2012. The film has now crossed $325 million domestically, becoming the fastest to ever do so as it dropped only 7% from its record-breaking Monday. Additionally, it added another $41.3 million internationally bringing its global cume to $689.4 million, placing it ahead of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation on the all-time worldwide chart at #81.

The 6.85% drop is a bit off of Avatar's 1.83% Tuesday drop, which does adjust our previous calculations for the rest of the week based on Avatar's dailies. The results, should Star Wars follow Avatar's first week daily drops and increases would now look like this:

For a direct comparison to Avatar as well as fellow domestic box office champs The Avengers, Jurassic World and Titanic you can click here.

Star Wars won't be breaking the Wednesday or Thursday records, but another record the film broke today was the largest non-opening Tuesday and it should manage to break the same record for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Breaks Record For Highest 3-Day Gross At A Single Location

Pacific's Arclight Cinema is now home to the record for the highest three-day gross for any film at a single location.

To the surprise of nobody, it's Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The film earned $370,597 on Friday (including Thursday night previews), $180,904 on Saturday, and $163,510 on Sunday, according to Rentrak (via Variety), totalling $715,010. The previous record holder had been The Dark Knight Rises, with $594,678 at the Empire 25.

J.J. Abrams loved the Star Wars: Episode VIII script so much, he regrets not directing it

Star Wars: The Force Awakens hasn’t even been in theaters a full week yet, but plans are already in motion for its follow-up, Episode VIII. Rian Johnson (Looper) is directing that sequel, but J.J. Abrams is apparently regretting not returning to the galaxy far, far away to helm it himself.

His longtime friend Greg Grunberg (who has a small part in The Force Awakens and also appeared on Abrams’ TV series Lost and Felicity) told The Washington Post that Abrams reacted that way after recently reading the Episode VIII script

“He read it and said something he never, ever says,” Grunberg said of Abrams. “He said: ‘It’s so good, I wish I were making it.’”

“He may have said something one time on Lost, with Damon [Lindelof, the co-creator],” the actor added, “but I never hear him express regret like that.”

Star Wars: Episode VIII is slated for release on May 26, 2017. Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World) is directing Episode IX, which will arrive in 2019.

Voters were asked to consider who had the most influence on entertainment and culture in 2015. Beyond its 95 percent fresh rating on RottenTomatoes.com, early awards buzz, and more than $600 million already in box office take, the huge anticipation for the new “Star Wars” has allowed Disney to drop tons of related merchandise over the entirety of 2015.

The film is on pace to break “Avatar’s” overall sales record, and maybe even cross the unthinkable $3 billion worldwide threshold when all is said and done. We’d call it a worthy winner.

“Personally, it’s been three years of feeling privileged to be part of something that’s bigger than all of us,” “Episode VII” director J.J. Abrams told the AP. “This accolade is very much appreciated and no exception to that feeling.”

“It’s funny,” he added. “I’ve spent the last few years with everyone asking me how I am dealing with the pressure. The truth is that anything that happens at this point is icing on a cake that I’m just happy came out of the oven.”

‘Star Wars’ Leads Soaring Christmas Day Advanced Ticket Sales In What Could Be Historic Weekend

This Christmas is headed to the record books thanks to Star Wars: The Force Awakens and a plethora of new films coming into play. For the first time in its history, Christmas weekend could haul in a three-day gross of more than $300M. Last weekend, it was around $315 million, but that included a whopping Thursday preview from Star Wars. Without that, it was a three-day of about $265M. Friday sales, according to Fandango, are on track to far outpace all other Christmas Days before it. The best previous was in 2012, when Les Miserables and Django Unchained were both packing in moviegoers, according to Fandango. Over at MovieTickets.com, sales for Star Wars account for 83% of all sales on its site over the past 24 hours.

The third biggest day in pre-sales for Star Wars already was known to be Christmas Day, but we hear that The Hateful Eight is also going great guns for its limited release.

The success of Christmas Day usually depends on three demographic groups: Non Christians, older males, and African Americans. The last time Christmas was on Friday was in 2009 and with titles like Avatar, Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, Sherlock Holmes and It’s Complicated in the mix, it pulled in $280M for the three-day.

This year with Star Wars, Sisters, Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Road Chip and a bevy of new pictures (Daddy’s Home, Joy, Concussion, Point Break) and limited titles expected to perform well (Hateful Eight, The Revenant, The Big Short and Carol) we should be able to get over $300M weekend for the first time in the history of the business.

Generally, PG titles do very well over the family holiday, so that is welcome news for the Will Ferrell-Mark Walhberg comedy Daddy’s Home, a PG-13 play from Paramount; Joy from 20th Century Fox; and Point Break from Warner Bros. as well as holdover title Alvin.

“There’s a bounty of new movies in theaters this weekend, including the latest releases from megastars like Will Smith, Will Ferrell and Jennifer Lawrence,” Fandango chief correspondent Dave Karger said in a statement. “But Star Wars: The Force Awakens will see record repeat business and top the box office for the second weekend in a row. The grand total should amount to Fandango’s biggest Christmas weekend ever.”

John Boyega Confirms Star Wars: Episode VIII Begins Filming In a Few Weeks

At one of John Boyega's many surprise appearances at screenings of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this time in Brixton, UK, he confirmed the time table everyone's been talking about for the next chapter of the series. Boyega said that he's excited to start filming Episode VIII "in a few weeks in London" when he addressed a crowd there.

"It's an alright film, innit?" Boyega said to the applauding full house, according to a report by Sky. "I have been doing some pop-ups at several different cinemas all over London, and I definitely had to come to Brixton since I'm from down the road in Peckham.

"So I just wanted to say a thank you to everyone for coming out and supporting this movie. The movie is yours now and I really hope you enjoyed it and we are so happy to be starting on Episode VIII in a few weeks in London. It is going to be fun," the actor said.

This narrows the timeline to late January, while Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has been saying "next month" or "January" while on the press tour for The Force Awakens. Good to know the cast will get at least a couple of weeks off for the holiday before they jump back into the shoes of Jedi, pilots, and stormtroopers from a galaxy far, far away.

In addition to breaking records at the box office, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” also dominated digital this year, ranking as the #1 film of 2015. With over 280 million engagements across platforms, “Star Wars” trumps every other 2015 release by nearly 100 million.

The No. 2 film of the year, “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” tracks with only 189 million engagements to date.

The top three sources of engagement for “Star Wars” throughout the campaign were YouTube (66%), Instagram (15%), and Twitter (7%) — also the three channels where “Star Wars” led every other 2015 release. As expected, the film’s trailers were exceptionally popular on YouTube, while Instagram and Twitter followers gravitated to short video uploads and poster releases.

Facebook and Tumblr are the only platforms where “the force” was unable to lead the year. The strength of religious films on Facebook propelled “God’s Not Dead” to the top of the leaderboard, while Marvel was undefeated on Tumblr thanks to “Avengers: Age of Ultron.”

J.J. Abrams’ late high school teacher is now a forever part of The Force.

The Star Wars: The Force Awakens director revealed in an interview with The Palisadian Post that his late high school English teacher, Rose Gilbert, was the inspiration for one of the characters in the space film.

“Yes, the character of Maz was originally based on the great Rose Gilbert,” Abrams said. “We really wanted the story to feel authentic, despite being a wild fantasy. I mentioned Rose in an early story meeting as a sort of timeless, wise figure that I’d actually known in my life.”

Gilbert, whose large glasses are similar in size and aspect to Maz’s, was a Palisades Charter High School teacher since its open in 1961 and retired at the age of 94 in 2013 as the oldest full-time teacher in the L.A. Unified School District, according to the Post. Before her retirement, she was teaching three AP English classes in the same classroom she held for 51 years.

Abrams revealed that Star Wars’ production designer Rick Carter was also a student of Gilbert. “Turns out the production designer, Rick Carter, had also been a student of Ms. Gilbert, 15 years before me,” Abrams said.

He said of the look given to Gilbert: “While we experimented with many looks and styles before settling on the character’s final design, Rose was always at the center of the inspiration of Maz. Rick and I had hoped to contact Rose and show her what we were doing, but she sadly passed away while we were in the prep of the film.” The director and production designer both attended Gilbert’s funeral service in January 2014 — she’d died at the age of 95 on Dec. 16, 2013.

Box Office: 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Tops 'Revenge of the Sith' in U.S.

Crossing $813 million globally, J.J. Abrams' reboot has also surpassed the entire global gross of 'Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones'; a flurry of new movies open on Christmas Day.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens saw its North American cume rise to $391.1 million on Christmas Eve, passing the $380.3 million earned in 2005 by Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of Sith.

That means J.J. Abrams' blockbuster has now earned more domestically than both Episode III and Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones ($310.7 million) in less than a week in release, not accounting for inflation. And it's already surpassed the entire global gross of Attack of the Clones in 2002 ($649.4 million). Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace grossed $430 million domestically in 1999 and $1 billion worldwide.

Moviegoing always dips on Christmas Eve day, and this year was no exception. Force Awakens saw its lowest midweek gross, or $27.6 million. Still, it topped Avatar's Christmas Eve 2009 record of $11.2 million. Overseas, the Disney and Lucasfilm tentpole took in $20 million on Thursday for a worldwide total of $813.5 million, the No. 3 film of the year.

Abrams' critically acclaimed movie, set 30 years after the events of Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi, features a strong female heroine in Rey, a young scavenger played by newcomer Daisy Ridley. Rey and a renegade stormtrooper (John Boyega) band together to challenge a rising evil that includes a new planet-killing laser cannon.

The film also stars Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Lupita Nyong'o and Domhnall Gleeson, along with original trilogy stars Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher.

There's no telling how high Force Awakens will ultimately fly in terms of box-office revenue, since films over the year-end holidays can see huge multiples. James Cameron's Avatar opened to $77 million on the same weekend in 2009 on its way to becoming the top-grossing film of all time with $2.79 billion in global ticket sales, including $760.5 million domestically. And on the weekend before Christmas in 1996, Cameron's Titanic took in a mere $28.6 million on its way to grossing $2.19 billion worldwide.

Thanks to “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” Disney’s total domestic gross for 2015 has passed the $2 billion milestone for the first time.

Disney’s previous domestic record for a year was $1.719 billion in 2013, led by “Iron Man 3” and “Frozen.”

“The Force Awakens” set a Christmas Day record in the U.S. with $49.3 million, lifting its domestic total to $440.4 million after eight days. On Saturday, the seventh Star Wars movie will eclipse Disney’s previous top 2015 grosser, “Avengers: Age of Ultron” at $459 million.

“Inside Out” has been the second-highest Disney domestic performer this year with $356 million, followed by “Cinderella” at $201 million.

Disney will finish 2015 in second place in domestic market share behind Universal, which has already hit $2.4 billion, thanks to “Jurassic World” at $652.7 million, “Furious 7” at $353 million and “Minions” at $336 million.

“The Force Awakens” took in $27.5 million internationally on Christmas Day with Disney noting that the holiday tends to be relatively light in foreign markets. Theaters in the U.K. were closed.

The international total for “The Force Awakens” has hit $449.9 million for a worldwide total of $890.3 million. The top markets are the U.K. at $83 million, Germany at $44.6 million, France at $38.8 million and Australia at $29.7 million.

In November of 2014, Disney and Lucasfilm chose The Force Awakens as the title for Episode VII of the Star Wars film franchise. With a project this important, financially and culturally, it is safe to assume that there were several alternative titles being considered. And now we know one of them!

During a Twitter exchange, Pablo Hidalgo, Creative Executive of the Lucasfilm Story Group, told Jedi News editor Justin LaSalata that for a long period of time Star Wars VII was actually titled Shadow of the Empire.

That title will be familiar to you Star Wars fans as Shadows of the Empire was the title of Steve Perry's 1996 novel and it was also used for a multimedia project that included a comic book mini-series published by Dark Horse Comics and a LucasArts' video game developed for the Nintendo 64.

Repeat viewers and females are playing an increased role in the movie's record-shattering run as the audience broadens out.

There's no slowing down Star Wars: The Force Awakens, thanks in part to ardent fans watching the movie multiple times and a growing female audience.

J.J. Abrams' tentpole continued to crush one record after another at the Christmas box office, finishing the weekend with a whopping 10-day domestic total of $544.6 million and crossing the $1 billion mark globally faster than any film in history.

"The speed with which records are falling is a testament to the audience broadening out. And you can't do these kind of numbers without extraordinary repeat business," said Disney distribution president Dave Hollis. "We know anecdotally people are seeing it three and four times. Everyone wants to be part of something that has become a cultural phenomenon."

While males continue to show up in force, increased interest among women and girls is another key reason why Force Awakens — featuring a strong female heroine in Daisy Ridley's character, Rey — will soon overtake the $760 million earned by 2009's Avatar domestically to become the top-grossing film of all time in the U.S. and Canada.

Exit surveys don't target repeat viewers, but they do reveal how the audience makeup is shifting.

Force Awakens skewed heavily male, or 67 percent, when opening domestically over the Dec. 18-20 weekend, according to industry leader Rentrak, which conducts real-time exit polls via PostTrak. The gender breakdown changed by Christmas weekend, with males making up 62 percent of the audience and females, 38 percent.

Disney always knew that males would be the demo most keen to see Force Awakens, so went to great lengths to target females in its marketing campaign, as well as families.

The audience is also becoming more diverse, according to PostTrak. Initially, 63 percent of ticket buyers were Caucasian, followed by Hispanics (12 percent) and African-Americans (10 percent). Over Christmas weekend, those numbers changed to 57 percent, 15 percent and 11 percent, respectively.

Force Awakens is expected to pass Avatar by the end of New Year's weekend in North America, and even has a shot of ultimately hitting $1 billion domestically. It's still not clear, however, whether Force Awakens can eclipse Avatar's record global gross of $2.8 billion, although most believe it will easily cross $2 billion worldwide, putting it in the range of 1997's Titanic, the No. 2 title of all time ($2.19 billion). (Titanic was especially famous for repeat viewings.)

A key test will be China, where Force Awakens doesn't open until Jan. 9. Box-office experts are already predicting that it will outgross the $238 million earned by Jurassic World in China, even though the Star Wars franchise isn't a known quantity.

With the largest second weekend of all-time, Star Wars: The Force Awakens has now grossed more than $544 million domestically and another $546 million internationally, totaling over $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales in just twelve days. Along with five other new wide releases, it also sits atop the second largest weekend of all-time with the top twelve films grossing over $285 million as Daddy's Home defied expectations, cruising to an easy second place finish with an estimated $38.8 million. Otherwise, expectations were mostly met when it comes to fellow newcomers in Joy, Concussion and Point Break while The Hateful Eight performed quite well in its limited, 100 theater debut.

Topping the weekend for a second straight weekend with an estimated $153.5 million, Star Wars is now the second highest grossing domestic release of 2015 with $544.5 million and the 15th highest grossing worldwide release of all-time. It's also now the record holder for the largest second weekend of all-time, besting Jurassic World's previous record by a massive $46.9 million. In fact, the records are piling up so quickly it's becoming ridiculous as it is now the fastest movie to cross $100, $150, $200, $300, $350, $400, $450 and $500 million as well as holds the largest three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten day gross. For even more of the over 35 records it now holds click here.

Force Awakens has topped the two largest weekends of all-time and next weekend the only added competition is the expansion of Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight. Avatar's domestic box office record of $760.5 million is very much in sight as Force Awakens is currently only $215.9 million shy of that number and has only been in domestic theaters for ten days. The question right now doesn't necessarily seem to be a matter of "if", but "when" followed by "How much?" A 3.5 times multiplier based on its opening weekend alone projects a $867.8 million domestic run... could it possibly go higher? A drop of 50% next weekend would still be enough to claim the largest third weekend of all-time as the stars seemed to be properly aligned for continued Star Wars box office glory.

You can browse the complete weekend estimates right here and, as the holidays continue, don't expect full actual results until around January 4, 2016.

U.K. Box Office: 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Already Among Top 10 Films of All Time

The film nears $100 million in 10 days, having already topped all previous 'Star Wars' titles, plus 'The Hobbit,' 'Pirates of the Caribbean,' 'Dark Knight' and all but two 'Harry Potter' films.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is reverberating around the world with stunning results, blasting past $1 billion in record time, and it is doing some of its biggest numbers in the country where much of the film was shot.

After just 10 days of release in the U.K., J.J. Abrams' 7th installation of the space epic is already nearing the $100 million mark, with $97.2 million as of Saturday and having surpassed all previous Star Wars, plus The Hobbit, Pirates of the Caribbean and Dark Knight titles. It has also soared beyond all but two films from the Harry Potter franchise.

With Sunday's results, the film — which was shot mostly at Pinewood Studios and has two Brits, John Boyega and Daisy Ridley, in lead roles — is expected to enter the top 10 films of all time in the U.K. (skipping over The Lord of the Rings trilogy) and begin challenging Jurassic World ($99.7 million) for the ninth spot.

While The Force Awakens still has a way to go before it starts challenging for the U.K.'s top positions, its momentum will likely see it soon knocking on the door of Disney's only top 10 release, Toy Story 3 ($116 million), on its way towards 2015's current leader Spectre ($138 million), plus the overall title holder Skyfall ($161 million).

Unless British cinemagoers see a sudden, unexpected switch of interests from lightsabers to transsexual Scandinavians or Miracle Mop inventors, with The Danish Girl and Joy both being released this week, The Forces Awakens' hold on the local box office crown is likely to remain as tight as ever heading into the new year.

The tentpole crossed $1 billion worldwide on Sunday, becoming the fastest film in history to achieve the milestone.

J.J. Abrams' record-shattering Star Wars: The Force Awakens came in slightly behind Sunday estimates, earning $149.2 million over Christmas weekend in North America, versus $153.5 million, for a mammoth domestic total of $540.3 million and worldwide haul north of $1 billion.

That represents the largest second weekend in history and is by far the top holiday gross of all time. The previous Christmas weekend champ was Sherlock Holmes in 2009 with a $62.3 million opening.

Force Awakens has smashed one record after another since its debut. Add to that list becoming the fastest film in history to cross $1 billion at the worldwide box office, a feat it accomplished on Sunday, its 12th day in release. That compares to 13 days for Jurassic World, which boasted a day-and-date opening in China. (Star Wars doesn't open in China until Jan. 9).

At this rate, there's no saying how high the Star Wars reboot will ultimately fly. Domestically, it's now assured of eclipsing 2009's Avatar ($760.5 million) to become the top-grossing title of all time, a record it could claim by the end of New Year's Eve weekend, not accounting for inflation. Some believe it could ultimately earn north of $1 billion in North America.

Overseas, Force Awakens has grossed $550.3 million for a global cume of $1.09 billion through Sunday.

Between Force Awakens and a flurry of new movies, revenue over Christmas weekend clocked in at a record $295 million, well ahead of the $269 million grossed in 2009. Five movies opened nationwide over the holiday — Daddy's Home, Joy, Concussion, The Big Short and Point Break — while Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight and Alejandro G. Inarritu's The Revenant launched in select locations.

The week between Christmas and New Year's weekend is the most lucrative corridor of the year in terms of moviegoing, and the new films are hoping for strong multiples even with Force Awakens dominating much of the marketplace.

The Disney sequel has earned $106 million to date on Imax screens after a record-setting 12 days, and without China.

In Imax theaters alone, Star Wars: The Force Awakens has crossed the $100 million global box office mark in a record-setting 12 days, the giant screen exhibitor said Monday.

The Walt Disney release now has a global take to date at $106 million, and without a China release. That beats Jurassic World, which took 18 days to reach $100 million in global box office with a day and date China release.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens grossed $27.2 million at the worldwide box office this past weekend, with $18.6 million having come from 391 Imax screens domestically, and another $8.6 million from 282 Imax screens globally. That takes the North American cume to $70 million and the overseas total to $36.4 million.

J.J. Abrams' sequel will premiere in China on Jan. 9, and elsewhere across the Imax network into February. Star Wars: The Force Awakens broke records elsewhere at the Christmas box office, finishing the opening weekend with a 10-day domestic total of $544.6 million and crossing the $1 billion mark globally faster than any film in history.

Imax set the table for the record-setting opening weekend performance by Star Wars: The Force Awakens by offering all of its large-format screens in North America and most of its foreign screens to the tentpole release.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” has been selected as the best movie of 2015 by customers of the online ticketing service Fandango.

“The Martian” was runner-up and “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2” took the third spot.

“The Force Awakens” won by an “overwhelming” margin in the company’s survey, which was taken during recent weeks. It also noted that “The Force Awakens” set new Fandango ticketing records, including top pre-seller and best-selling movie of all time, before the film was released in theaters.

Fandango, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, also found in a separate survey that 42% of its customers will see “The Force Awakens” more than once in theaters.

The Disney and Lucasfilm tentpole is quickly moving up the chart of all-time top-grossing films, leaping past 'Minions' and 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' worldwide.

J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens is speeding toward the $600 million mark in North America after earning $31.4 million from 4,134 theaters on Monday for a domestic total of $571.4 million.

It will become only the fifth film in history to cross $600 million domestically, after The Avengers ($623.4 million), Jurassic World ($652.3 million), Titanic ($658.7 million) and Avatar ($760.5 million), not accounting for inflation. And it's possible Force Awakens could overtake Avatar by the end of New Year's weekend.

Worldwide, Force Awakens has cleared $1.16 billion for Disney and Lucasfilm, quickly moving up the chart of all-time top-grossing titles. On Monday, it took the No. 10 spot after passing up a slew of movies, including Transformers: Age of Extinction ($1.1 billion), Skyfall ($1.11 billion), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($1.12 billion), Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($1.124 billion) and Minions ($1.157 billion).

Force Awakens earned $39.4 million internationally on Monday for a foreign total of $589.7 million.

The movie has smashed one record after another since its debut. Add to that list becoming the fastest film in history to cross $1 billion at the worldwide box office, a feat it accomplished on Sunday, its 12th day in release. That compares to 13 days for Jurassic World, which boasted a day-and-date opening in China. (Star Wars doesn't open in China until Jan. 9).

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is now the proud owner of the two biggest Mondays at the domestic box office in history. After setting the record last week, the film's second Monday is at an estimated $31.4 million, again beating the old record of Spider-Man 2's, and taking the second spot all time.

The strong second Monday puts The Force Awakens on pace for $600 million in the next couple of days (it's at $571.4 million total domestic currently), and should hit $700 million over the second holiday weekend in a row for the film, its third weekend in theaters. It's already the fifth-highest domestic gross of all time, and would be only the fifth film to ever hit $600 million, and only the second to ever hit $700 million in the domestic market.

Avatar's domestic gross record of $760.5 million, held since 2009, seems well within reach for Star Wars: The Force Awakens now, ready to be tallied up to the ever-growing list of records for the Lucasfilm juggernaut. The foreign tally of $2.02 billion and worldwide total, then, of $2.79 billion, though, will be a tough one to catch. While Star Wars international numbers have stayed on pace with domestic with China yet to open (January 9, 2016 debut in the world's second largest film market), it would need a significant push and staying power to reach those heights.

The U.S. box office has hit the $11 billion mark for 2015 for the first time, thanks to a final push by “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

Domestic box office receipts for this year crossed the milestone on Tuesday, according to Rentrak. With two days left in 2015, the final number will hit about $1.1 billion.

This year’s total will be about $200 million ahead of the previous record of $10,919,694,802 set in 2013. And it’s 7.2% ahead of the 2014 mark of $10,356,099,042, which declined 5.2% from 2013.

Disney’s “The Force Awakens” took in $31.4 million on Monday in U.S. theaters for a domestic total of $571.4 million in only 11 days. The seventh “Star Wars” film may catch Universal’s “Jurassic World,” the top 2015 grosser at $652 million, by the end of the week.

“The Force Awakens” is already the fifth-biggest domestic grosser of all time, trailing “Avatar” at $760 million, “Titanic” at $658 million, “Jurassic World” at $652 million and “Marvel’s The Avengers” at $623 million.

Disney also had the third and fourth highest grossers this year with “Avengers: Age of Ultron” with $459 million and “Inside Out” with $356.5 million as the Pixar title became a surprise blockbuster. “Age of Ultron” is the ninth-highest domestic grosser of all time.

“Inside Out” edged Universal’s “Furious 7,” which drove to $353 million in domestic box office. Universal also had the sixth largest grosser with “Minions” taking in $336 million.

Universal will win the box office crown with more than 21%, followed by Disney at nearly 20%.

Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2” took seventh with $265.9 million, followed by Fox’s “The Martian” at $225 million. Disney’s “Cinderella” came in ninth at $201 million followed by Sony’s “Spectre” with $196.5 million.

Disney’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ demolished another record Tuesday night. According to finals from Disney, its total gross rose to an estimated $600.9M on Tuesday after posting another $29.5M. The franchise fan favorite dropped a mere 6% from Monday. Hot on Avatar‘s tail to become the highest-grossing film of all time domestically, it is now the fastest film to reach $600M and, at this rate, should hit $700M this weekend and log fastest to that threshold as well.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” has passed “Marvel’s The Avengers” as the highest-grossing film in the history of Walt Disney Studios on a domestic basis.

The seventh film in the hugely popular science-fiction franchise has made $629 million domestically, surpassing the $623.4 million total gross of the superhero adventure. On Wednesday, “The Force Awakens” earned $28.1 million stateside and $36.7 million internationally.

Its $1.29 billion worldwide haul has moved past “Frozen” on the list of all-time highest-grossing films. “The Force Awakens” is on track to exceed $2 billion globally and could challenge “Avatar” as the biggest box office earner in history.

The “Star Wars” sequel wasn’t the only film getting a jump on New Year’s. The Weinstein Company moved up the wide release debut of “The Hateful Eight” by two days, and will push it from 100 theaters to 2,474 by Friday. The revisionist western earned $3.5 million on Wednesday for a fourth place finish, and should reel in roughly $20 million over its first five days in theaters. It has generated $10.2 million since opening in limited release over Christmas.

“Daddy’s Home” snagged second place on Wednesday, picking up $6.7 million to push the Mark Wahlberg-Will Ferrell comedy to $58.8 million domestically. “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip” came in third with $4.2 million, while “Sisters” rounded out the top five with $3.2 million. The “Chipmunks” sequel has grossed $52.4 million, while “Sisters” has generated $46.8 million.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is now the highest-grossing film in Disney history

Sorry, Frozen — Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ success is a snowball that won’t stop growing. The film just passed Elsa and Anna’s spot in the all-time global box office rankings, becoming the #8 movie of all-time, according to Disney estimates on Thursday.

The Force Awakens has also now become the highest-grossing domestic Disney film of all time, making as much money in only 13 days as Marvel’s The Avengers made in all of 2012 ($623.4 million). The Force was strong on Christmas weekend, making $28.1 million domestically and $36.7 million internationally, for a global total of $64.8 million. Domestically, The Force Awakens is the #2 movie of 2015, and the #4 movie of all-time.

Breaking yet another record, Star Wars: The Force Awakens scored the top New Year's Day gross of all time in North America with $34.5 million from 4,134 theaters as it approached the $700 million mark after overtaking both Jurassic World and Titanic, not accounting for inflation.

Avatar was the previous New Year's champ with $25.3 million in 2009 (that was the last time the holiday also fell on a Friday). Force Awakens, which finished Friday with a cume of $686.4 million, is only days away from passing up Avatar ($760.8 million) altogether and becoming the top-grossing film ever domestically, again not accounting for inflation. It should achieve the milestone sometime on Tuesday or Wednesday.

For New Year's weekend, Star Wars is expected to earn a massive $90 million-plus, the best showing in history for the holiday weekend and pushing the movie's North American cume to $742 million through Sunday. On Saturday, the Disney and Lucasfilm blockbuster leapt past Jurassic World ($652.3 million) and Titanic ($658.7 million) to become the No. 2 title of all time domestically.

Worldwide, Force Awakens finished Friday with a mammoth total of $1.39 billion — including $704.2 million internationally — as it overtook the final Harry Potter film ($1.34 billion) to become the No. 7 top-grossing title of all time. On Saturday, it will eclipse Avengers: Age of Ultron ($1.41 billion) to claim the No. 6 spot.

The U.K. leads overseas with $133.5 million, one of the best showings of all time, followed by Germany ($73.9 million), France ($61.4 million), Australia ($47.1 million), Japan ($46.1 million), Spain ($24.7 million), Italy ($23.3 million) and Mexico (23.1 million). It's not seeing the same big numbers in some parts of Asia, such as South Korea ($21.8 million). However, Force Awakens is counting on being a huge player in China, where it will roll out on Jan. 9.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” has begun 2016 the same way it closed out 2015: it’s making a killing at the box office. The seventh chapter in the space opera nabbed $34 million on Friday, putting its domestic cume on track for close to $750 million by the end of the holiday weekend.

Unspooling in 4,134 locations, “Force Awakens” should pull in north of $95 million during its third weekend of release. Unsurprisingly, it’s far and away the most popular title at multiplexes this holiday, distantly trailed by Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg’s comedy “Daddy’s Home” and Quentin Tarantino’s latest Western “The Hateful Eight.” Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Adam Driver star in the J.J. Abrams-directed Disney-Lucasfilm adventure.

“Force Awakens” has already overtaken domestic box office leaders “Titanic” (previously No. 2 with $658.7 million) and “Jurassic World” (formerly No. 3 with $652 million). It’s expected to exceed “Avatar’s” record of $760.5 million early next week, with some expecting the win as early as Monday.

“Star Wars” fans might have found themselves conflicted by the recent media storm over series creator George Lucas telling Charlie Rose that he sold the series to “white slavers.” He quickly backpedaled, insisting that “Disney is doing an incredible job of taking care of and expanding the franchise,” he said. “I rarely go out with statements to clarify my feelings but I feel it is important to make it clear that I am thrilled that Disney has the franchise and is moving it in such exciting directions in film, television and the parks.”

Showing no signs of a slowdown, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” has eclipsed the final Harry Potter movie for the seventh spot in worldwide box office with $1.39 billion.

The seventh Star Wars movie took in $59.5 million on Friday — its 17th day of release — with $34.5 million in the U.S. and another $25 million internationally.

Disney’s space saga will pass another of its tentpoles by the end of Saturday when “The Force Awakens” tops Marvel’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron” at $1.405 billion. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2” grossed $1.34 billion in 2011.

Domestic grosses have hit $686.4 million in 15 days with another $60 million projected for the rest of this weekend. That leaves “The Force Awakens” on track to top the all-time mark set six years ago by “Avatar” at $760 million early next week.

International grosses have gone past $700 million. At its current pace, the movie — starring Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley and John Boyega — will soon be moving past the fourth- and fifth-highest entries on the worldwide list, occupied by Disney-Marvel’s “The Avengers” with $1.52 billion and Universal’s “Furious 7” at $1.515 billion.

“The Force Awakens” will then take another week to get to the third spot on the list, currently occupied by Universal’s “Jurassic World” at $1.67 billion. At that point, the movie is certain to receive a significant boost after it opens in China on Jan. 9.

Currently, the top foreign markets for “The Force Awakens” are the U.K. with $133.5 million, Germany with $73.9 million, France with $61.4 million and Australia at $47.1 million.

The booming Chinese market has the capability of becoming the No. 1 international territory. Box office analysts have already said that “The Force Awakens” may be able to reach the top two films on the worldwide chart: “Avatar” at $2.78 billion and “Titanic” at $2.19 billion.

'Star Wars' Crosses $700 Million Domestically as 2016 is Off to a Strong Start

This first weekend of 2016 is the second largest January weekend of all-time. The top twelve grossed an estimated $204.6 million, $4.5 million shy of the current record, set in 2009 when Avatar was king of the world. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, however, has its eye on Avatar's crown as it now sits in second place, just $20 million behind Avatar's all-time domestic record, and over $1.5 billion worldwide. Also making headlines this weekend Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight expanded nationwide, Daddy's Home and Sisters prove people want comedy and Charlie Kaufman's stop-motion animated feature hit limited theaters.

Beginning with Star Wars, Disney is estimating an $88.3 million weekend, which brings the film up to $740.2 million after only 17 days in theaters. It's the fastest film to cross $700 million domestically, doing in 16 days what took Avatar 72. The film has broken 40 box office records (and those are just the records BoxOfficeMojo officially tracks at this time) and is currently the sixth highest grossing release worldwide with an estimated $1.51 billion. It will be in fourth place by the close of business tomorrow night.

As for the weekend itself, don't be surprised to see Star Wars jump up a few million. Rival studios project the weekend to be around $91 million, which would give it the largest January weekend of all-time. Disney is most likely being conservative with their numbers, estimating a rather steep 43.6% Sunday drop.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Is Already The Second Highest Grossing Movie In IMAX History

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a few days away from becoming the top-grossing domestic film of all time -- and it may not even take the global box office record, which is still a ways away.

But it's already #2 with a bullet on IMAX.

Star Wars has made a massive $152 million from IMAX showings globally, making it the second highest-grossing release in the company’s history, Variety reports. It's likely the film will overtake Avatar's $243.3 million global take after it opens next weekend in China, where it will screen on 268 IMAX screens.

The global box office topped $38 billion for the first time in history, Rentrak reported on Sunday.

Ticket sales reached landmark levels on the strength of a blockbuster-heavy slate of films that included four of the seven highest-grossing films of all time in “Jurassic World,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and “Furious 7.”

Those four films, and “Minions,” all topped $1 billion in ticket sales, the first time that has happened in a single year.

These pictures helped the North American box office rebound from a down year in 2014, with ticket sales climbing 6.3% domestically to more than $11 billion. It also got an assist from China, where receipts topped out at $6.8 billion, a nearly 50% improvement from the previous year. Those gains came despite the fact that the Chinese economy slowed to its lowest growth rate — an official 7% — in over a decade.

Nor was China the only problem spot in the globe. Russia’s currency continued to teeter, the Euro lost value relative to the dollar, and the debt crisis in Greece sent shockwaves throughout Europe. Moviegoing remained popular despite the tumult, although the weaker European currency did negatively affect the foreign grosses of U.S. blockbusters.

Final ticket sales are still being tallied, so it’s possible that receipts could end up even closer to $40 billion for the calendar year. As it is, the worldwide haul will be at least a 3.5% hike from last year’s record-setting $36.7 billion haul and a 5.8% rise from 2014’s $35.9 billion in revenue.

Looking ahead, the box office faces some headwinds. There are concerns that 2016 won’t be able to surpass last year’s results, because films such as “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Captain America: Civil War” won’t be able to match the “Star Wars” and “Jurassic Park” sequels.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Named Most Anticipated Movie Of 2016 In Fandango Poll

The number one most anticipated movie of 2016 isn't X-Men: Apocalypse. It's not Captain America: Civil War or Batman v. Superman. Nor is it Doctor Strange, Deadpool, Gambit, or Suicide Squad. In fact, none of the super hero flicks claimed the number two spot, either.

A recent poll from Fandango has the most anticipated movie of 2016 being Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The Star Wars spinoff will stand on its own in the galaxy far, far away, introducing all new characters, one of which is rumored to appear in 2017's Episode VIII. It isn't hard to imagine this being the most anticipating film of next year, with The Force Awakens still dominating at the box office in its third weekend and breaking every record in sight.

The number two film on Fandango's most anticipated list is the long-awaited Finding Nemo sequel, Finding Dory.

In the third spot is where you'll find the first true comic book movie of the year, Batman V. Superman, followed by the still untitled Jason Bourne sequel.

Captain America: Civil War claims fifth place and the only other comic book movie on the list, X-Men: Apocalypse, sits in eighth place.

Fandango also polled its users to decide which comic book character debuting in a major role was the most anticipated of the year. Here are the results:1.Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice)2.Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool)3.Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie in Suicide Squad)4.Aquaman (Jason Momoa in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice)5.Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch in Doctor Strange)6.Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman in Captain America: Civil War)

German Box Office: 'Star Wars' Becomes Seventh Highest-Grossing Film of All Time

'The Force Awakens' continues its strong run in Germany, easily winning its third weekend there.

Star Wars: Episode VII—The Force Awakens got 2016 off to a sizzling start in Germany, as J.J. Abrams' take on the sci-fi franchise easily won its third weekend in the territory, grossing $10.9 million (€10 million) to bring its total take to around $80 million (€75 million) in the territory.

Less than a month in, Star Wars is already the seventh highest-grossing film of all time in Germany, not taking inflation into account. To compare, the current all-time record holder, Avatar, grossed €114 million in Germany back in 2009.

Star Wars had some stiff competition in the form of the winter holidays, with New Year's Eve and New Year's Day falling on Thursday and Friday, respectively, and German fans choosing to party instead of going to the movies. That made the film's weekend gross all the more impressive.

Star Wars is certain to continue to dominate the German charts in January, where it faces little direct competition. Leonardo DiCaprio-starrer The Revenant and transgender period drama The Danish Girl, which both open in Germany this week, are unlikely to challenge Star Wars' position at the top.

The space saga took in $8 million domestically and $14.5 million internationally on Monday. It was the lowest U.S. daily gross for Disney’s blockbuster since it opened on Dec. 18.

The domestic total for “The Force Awakens” has hit $750.2 million, trailing “Avatar” by $10.3 million for the tile of biggest film of all time. Should the movie perform similarly in coming days, the record would fall on Wednesday.

“The Force Awakens” has earned $786.1 million at international markets in the 20 days since its Dec. 16 launch. That total should see a major boost on Saturday, when it opens in China.

Box office analysts have forecasted that “The Force Awakens” could overtake the final three films on the list — “Avatar” at $2.89 billion, “Titanic” at $2.19 billion and “Jurassic World” at $1.67 billion.

With an updated gross of $764.4 million thru Wednesday, Jan. 7, Star Wars: the Force Awakens is officially the highest grossing film of all time in the domestic market. By the end of this coming weekend it will become the only film to cross $800 million domestically as the conversation then turns to its continuing international prospects.

With an updated gross of $764.4 million thru Wednesday, Jan. 7, Star Wars: the Force Awakens is officially the highest grossing film of all time in the domestic market. It took a mere 20 days for the film to surpass the previous record of $760.5M held by Avatar, which not only took a total of 318 days to achieve, but was spread across two releases.

When adjusted for inflation Force Awakens still has a long, long way to go to top Gone with the Wind's $1.73 billion, but it has moved to 20th position on the chart, just ahead of Raiders of the Lost Ark bringing to light another milestone.

Harrison Ford now tops the BoxOfficeMojo people index, surpassing longtime chart topper and fellow Star Wars alum, Samuel L. Jackson. The domestic box office take for Ford's films before adjusting for inflation totals a whopping $4.69 billion, topping Jackson by $73 million. Adjusted for inflation, Ford has no competition as his total reaches $9.36 billion, over $2.2 billion more than Tom Hanks in second place.

While Force Awakens' record breaking accomplishment is worthy of note, it's just the beginning. By the end of this coming weekend the record will be an afterthought as The Force Awakens will become the only film to cross $800 million domestically. From there the conversation turns to its continuing international prospects.

Ever since its record-shattering opening weekend the question of whether The Force Awakens would top Avatar domestically was more a matter of "When?" than "If?" A well-timed release, the proliferation of IMAX screens and rising ticket prices certainly helped matters, but now attention turns to the international and global box office numbers. International numbers for Star Wars are relatively even with domestic totals so far, which is saying something when compared to the likes of worldwide chart toppers such as Avatar, Titanic and Jurassic World, all of which saw over 60% of their worldwide total come from overseas markets. A whopping 72.7% of Avatar's number came from oveseas.

In fact, if you look at the top 25 films on the worldwide chart, Force Awakens is one of only six films with less than 60% of their overall worldwide gross coming from international territories. Also interesting is one of the closest films to matching Force Awakens in this regard is Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace with a 46.2/53.8 domestic to international split. The only film in the top 25 to generate more domestically than it did internationally is The Dark Knight.

At this point, it's difficult to determine just how big it will go, most of all because it has yet to release in China where Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and the Force aren't exactly known quantities. The original trilogy was screened in China for the first time just last June while the prequel films generated a combined $18.7 million upon their release in China. Force Awakens will obviously do better than that upon its release this Saturday, Jan. 9, but will it be able to match the $228 million earned by Jurassic World or the $240 million brought in by Avengers: Age of Ultron?

The film's global box office currently stands at $1.57 billion and $2 billion seems likely at this point, but if it wants to threaten Titanic's $2.186 billion for that second spot on the worldwide chart it's going to need some help. As for Avatar's $2.78 billion... it seems well out of reach at this point.

Here's a look at the current top ten, all-time worldwide earners (not adjusted for inflation).

THANK YOU: STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS BECOMES THE #1 FILM OF ALL-TIME IN THE USA SPECIAL MESSAGE TO FANS AS STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS HITS A MAJOR MILESTONE.

[url]Star Wars fans have kept a galaxy far, far away alive for close to 40 years. Without them, there is no Star Wars.

That’s why we are humbled and grateful to announce that, thanks to fans new and old, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is now the highest grossing film of all-time at the domestic box office, surpassing Avatar’s $760.50 million record in just 20 days. The movie also holds the records for biggest opening day at the domestic box office ($119.1 million), biggest opening weekend at the domestic box office ($247.96 million), and biggest IMAX opening at the domestic box office ($30.1 million), among many others.

We are proud of these records, but know that they would not be possible without fans’ enthusiasm and continued support. We feel it here and it drives us every day, and it will continue to in the very bright future of Star Wars. There has indeed been an awakening — and it’s all thanks to you.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Becomes First Film In 40 Years Not Directed By Cameron, Spielberg, Or Lucas To Top All-Time Domestic Box Office

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the undisputed Box Office Champion of 2015. That's just fact. The Force Awakens has beaten more than a dozen box office records and, as of yesterday, topped Avatar for the highest domestic gross of all time.

That victory doesn't just signify a new footnote financially, it also has a historical meaning as well as far as who sits on top of that throne as Box Office King.

For the last 40 years, the likes of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and James Cameron have switched the title back and forth like a game of billion dollar musical chairs. Spielberg started the trend with Jaws in 1975, then Lucas with Star Wars in 1977, then Cameron with Titanic in 1997, and again with Avatar in 2009. The Force Awakens breaks that streak as director J. J. Abrams sits at the top of the list.

China remains too unique a market for anyone to be absolutely sure how well “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” will do at the theatrical box office. Disney is doing little to manage expectations up or down, and everything to ensure that the score will be huge.

The film opens in the Middle Kingdom on Saturday January 9, making it the last territory in the world to receive the blockbuster. Estimates for total gross currently range from $107 million according to local box office trackers, to as high as $230 million, according to securities firm Nomura Holdings, which sees it equaling “Jurassic World.”

Neither of those numbers will come close to challenging Chinese box office records set last year by “Monster Hunt” and “Fast & Furious 7,” which both ended up north of $380 million. And neither will be enough to see the China score lift “The Force Awakens” above the worldwide total record held by “Avatar.”

But even the lower number would be a record for the “Star Wars” franchise in China. That’s because the first six films have not been released commercially in the world’s second largest theatrical market — until now – though they have played on television and in legal and illegal home entertainment formats.

Other factors complicating the guesswork include:– Saturday releases have been increasingly rare for Hollywood films;– Star Wars is a brand that skews towards an older and more pop-culture aware target than the fast-changing Chinese audience (which is getting younger and increasingly based in smaller towns and cities);– How competing films will play.

One thing working in the film’s favor is that Chinese audiences are generally sophisticated and well-read (online) and are already well-aware of “The Force Awakens” phenomenon in other territories.

Disney has pulled out plenty of stops to use that momentum, and to prepare Chinese audiences for the “Star Wars” release.

Talent (Daisy Ridley and John Boyega,) robots BB8 and R2D2, director JJ Abrams and producer Kathleen Kennedy, were all on hand at a Dec. 27 premiere in Shanghai.

Where the film lacks heritage in China, Disney has replaced that with a campaign that emphasizes scale, action and consumer culture. Most importantly, it contracted with local pop star and social media icon Lu Han as brand ambassador to introduce the brand to audiences. Lu released a song on Dec. 24, while his “Inner Force” music video debuted on Thursday (Jan. 7.)

Disney also turned up its pre-existing consumer goods machine in China to play up light sabers, and clothing, luggage and dairy products in tie-ups with Uniqlo, Anta and Yili respectively.

Replacing the traditional yellow colors for the franchise logo for a metallic silver, posters were tweaked to emphasize action and battle scenes. A second round of six posters later introduced characters. These included a solo poster for Boyega, who Western media suggested had been victim of a racist snub.

Trailers and TV partnerships have played strongly. The trailer has enjoyed close to 40 million views since Dec. 10, while Luhan’s Weibo (social media) postings have achieved 280 million views. In more recent days it has added a shareable emoticon campaign on Tencent’s QQ platform.

One analyst reckons that after more than 30 days of a blackout period, during which no major U.S. pictures have been released since “Point Break” in the first half of December, Chinese audiences have been starved of Hollywood movies and will flock to “Star Wars.” A similar phenomenon boost helped “Terminator: Genisys” after the summer blackout.

The Saturday opening day numbers then could be huge — $30 million is possible – which could be either misleading or create enough excitement to set off a snowball effect.

Disney has declined to reveal how many screens the film has obtained, though as a revenue share title handled by state-owned China Film Group, it is certain to be substantial. The film will play on more than 260 IMAX screens, or very nearly all available IMAX venues in the country, and sources close to IMAX suggest that the giant screens do particularly well with sci-fi and fantasy movies.

Potentially limiting the film’s ability to rack up records are the market’s structural limits, which include competition from other films as well as a run that has been limited to 30 days maximum. That means it will come off screens on by Feb. 8, the first day of the peak Chinese New Year season.

While some commentators have suggested that Chinese regulators will be over-cautious in their attempts to prevent another “Fast & Furious 7” breakout, that seems an unreasonably pessimistic scenario. Other U.S. titles releasing in January include “The Last Witch Hunter” on Jan. 15, “The Walk” on Jan. 22 and “Alvin And The Chipmunks” on Jan. 22. However, they all seem set for smaller releases, and “Sherlock: The Abominable Bride” released on Jan. 4 and should have done most of its business by the time “Star Wars” kicks in.

“Star Wars”’ biggest competitive threat comes from the release of “Kung Fu Panda 3” on Jan. 29. With two huge previous installments and a made in China tag helping it along the way, the Oriental Dreamworks picture has every expectation to be one of the top five films of the year in China.

The bloody frontier epic — starring Leonardo DiCaprio — is performing far better than expected to find itself in a close race with 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' for the weekend crown.

In a surprise upset, Leonardo DiCaprio took down the new Death Star at the Friday box office in North America.

The Revenant, starring DiCaprio and directed by Alejandro G. Inarritu, beat Star Wars: The Force Awakens with $14.4 million from 3,375 theaters. Force Awakens, now in its fourth weekend, took in $10.7 million from 4,134 locations for a massive domestic total of $781.1 million.

It's the first time since Force Awakens opened on Dec. 18 that it hasn't come in No. 1.

The Revenant and Force Awakens are now in a dead heat for the weekend crown, with both films expected to gross in the $37 million-$38 million range. Some have Revenant narrowly winning; others show Force Awakens pulling ahead.

Either way, the results are a major victory for DiCaprio and Inarritu on the eve of Sunday's Golden Globes ceremony, where The Revenant is up for best picture, best director and best actor in the drama categories.

Heading into the weekend, The Revenant was tracking to gross in the $20 million range. Force Awakens was expected to earn $40 million-$50 million, but like many other Christmas titles, is falling steeply this weekend (60 percent).

Still, Star Wars will claim a major win of its own sometime on Saturday in becoming the first film to ever cross the $800 million mark in North America. The J.J. Abrams-directed film, breaking numerous records all along the way, has already surpassed Avatar to rank as the top-grossing film in history in North America, not accounting for inflation.

Also this weekend, Force Awakens will march past the $1.669 billion grossed worldwide by Jurassic World to become the No. 3 title of all time behind Avatar ($2.78 billion) and Titanic ($2.19 billion), not accounting for inflation. And the film, from Disney and Lucasfilm, hasn't even opened in China, where it opened on Saturday to an estimated $33 million, shattering records.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the biggest film of all time in the UK

Well, this was hardly surprising, was it? After a mere 22 days on release, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is now officially the highest-grossing film of all time in the UK, hitting the top spot faster than the Millennium Falcon after a galactic MOT.

Only the second film in UK box-office history to reach £100million, The Force Awakens has now dethroned Skyfall’s £103.2million haul to take the top spot. And it continues to climb, toppling records in its path.

It is already the biggest film of all time in the US, with a three-quarters-of-a-billion domestic haul. But it remains some distance from the worldwide number one, Avatar. James Cameron’s 2009 alien sci-fi romp is the one to beat, with a seemingly insurmoutnable global gross of $2.8billion.

All eyes are now on how The Force Awakens performs in China. It is the world’s second-biggest film market, but audiences there aren’t as familiar with the franchise – the original trilogy first screened in July 2015 – and Disney have accordingly been marketing the hell out of it there. The Force Awakens opens in China on January 9, and analysts will be watching the results like a hawk.

Here in Blighty, though, Disney and LucasFilm have plenty to be happy about: as well as the number one movie of all time, they can also boast the following box office records: the biggest ever UK opening weekend; the biggest ever opening worldwide; widest release of a title in the UK; highest advance bookings of all time; the first film to reach £50m within a week; and the biggest ever single day at the box office with £9.7million.

If that wasn’t enough, J.J. Abrams’ sequel today earned four BAFTA nominations, for Original Music, Production Design, Sound and Special Visual Effects. When it comes to Disney’s buyout of LucasFilm (to paraphrase a certain L. Calrissian), this deal is getting better all the time.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” has shot past “Minions” for the 10th spot on the international box office chart.

Disney made the announcement Friday, two days after the seventh “Star Wars” film set a new record as the top domestic movie of all time, topping the $760.5 million record set by “Avatar.”

“The Force Awakens” took in $6 million domestically on Thursday, its 21st day of release, for a total of $770.4 million. The international gross grew by $9 million Thursday to push the total to $821.3 million — just ahead of “Minions’” $821.2 million for the 10th spot.

The worldwide total has hit $1.591 billion — short of matching “Jurassic World’s” $1.668 million for third place on the worldwide chart. “Avatar” sits at the top with $2.79 billion, followed by “Titanic” at $2.19 billion.

“The Force Awakens,” starring Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Harrison Ford, should see a major boost on Saturday when it opens in China, the second-largest moviegoing market in the world. Top international grosses have come from the U.K. at $150.5 million and Germany at $87 million.

Back in September, reports came in that Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin), Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) and Olivia Cooke (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) were in competition for an unspecified role in Rian Johnson's Star Wars: Episode VIII. A month later, Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Concussion) was added to the shortlist. Four days after that, Collider claimed that Gugu got a part in the film, though, they weren't sure if it was the same role that Rodriguez, Maslany and Cooke were up for.

On Friday's edition of "Meet The Movie Press," The Wrap's Jeff Sneider passed along some new information regarding that coveted Star Wars VIII role. First up, he heard from Variety’s Justin Kroll that Gugu Mbatha-Raw did NOT get the role. Sneider then revealed that Golden Globe-winner Gina Rodriguez is still in the hunt and Bel Powley (Diary Of A Teenage Girl), 23, is being considered as well.

The Force was strong with Leonardo DiCaprio, but not quite strong enough to dethrone “Star Wars” from its perch atop box office charts.

Throughout the weekend, “The Force Awakens” was locked in a pitched battle with “The Revenant” for first place, but as the dust settled on Sunday, the “Star Wars” sequel had managed to eke ahead of the bloody revenge drama to retain its crown for the fourth straight weekend, picking up $41.6 million in receipts. That brings the space opera’s stateside haul to $812 million, making it the first film to ever cross $800 million domestically.

Disney has invested heavily in “Star Wars,” plunking down more than $4 billion in 2012 for rights to Lucasfilm, the company behind the franchise. It has plans to not only create a new trilogy of films, but also to launch a series of standalone spinoffs. Given that China is the second-biggest source of ticket sales in the world and is expected to bypass the U.S. as the world’s top film market, success in the country is critical.

“With this kind of start and the response we are receiving from those who’ve seen it, we’re very encouraged by the beginning of what should be a very long run and what it represents for the long-term future of the franchise in one of the most important markets in the world,” said Hollis.

The film played particularly well in Imax, earning $8.1 million. That’s more than 15% of “The Force Awaken’s” gross. It’s a strong result for the wide-screen company given that it typically pulls in between 10% and 11% of the revenue for a blockbuster film.

Internationally, “The Force Awakens” picked up another $104.3 million this weekend, bringing its worldwide haul to a massive $1.73 billion. It is now the third highest-grossing movie in history, shooting past “Jurassic World’s” $1.67 billion global gross.

Anticipation for “The Force Awakens” was always fevered. More than a decade separated director J.J. Abrams’ update on the saga of Jedi knights and shadowy adherents of the Dark Side and the George Lucas prequels that proceeded them. However, China had no strong ties to the “Star Wars” franchise — a gap in their pop culture knowledge that Disney had to fill.

To that end, the studio’s campaign emphasized the film’s outer space setting and action-heavy plot. It also fanned some Middle Kingdom excitement by partnering with local pop star and social media icon Lu Han as a brand ambassador. Lu crafted an “Inner Force” music video earlier this month that served as an introduction to the space opera mythology.

“It shows that no one is better at building a brand than Disney,” said Greg Foster, CEO of Imax Entertainment.

Moving up the charts for a second, we find The Force Awakens taking first place for the fourth weekend in a row with an estimated $41.6 million. With that it has become the first film to gross over $800 million domestically with a massive $812 million and isn't done yet. Add to that it just brought in an estimated $53 million in its first two days in China. Disney is reporting this as the largest Saturday/Sunday opening of all-time in the country, but it should be noted it's the only film to have ever opened on a Saturday in China. That said, it obviously scored the biggest Saturday opening of all-time.

Globally, Star Wars is now the third highest grossing worldwide release of all-time with over $1.73 billion. Based on international numbers alone, it is now the seventh highest grossing release with $921.4 million, just behind Avengers: Age of Ultron. The most obvious goal now is to become only the third film ever to cross $2 billion worldwide.

We should say "spoiler alert" before this question, but is it a relief to finally be able to talk more openly about Star Wars: The Force Awakens - you've had months of interviews where you've had to be very secretive? Did you even tell your friends and family what happens?"Yes, at last! Han Solo dies, OK? He dies. Phew. It feels good. But now, we just starting work on Star Wars VIII, the next film, so I'm back to keeping secrets again."

Your co-star Daisy Ridley has already praised how good the script is. "It's great. Much darker, but we're very excited."

Disney and Lucasfilm are inching closer to finding their young Han Solo for the upcoming untitled “Star Wars” spinoff.

Sources tell Variety that after seeing thousands of actors, execs have cut the list down to about a dozen actors with Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Dave Franco, Jack Reynor, Scott Eastwood, Logan Lerman, “Brooklyn” star Emory Cohen and “Everybody Wants Some” actor Blake Jenner among the names making the cut.

NDAs and test deals are still being worked out, but producer Kathleen Kennedy and directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller will begin testing the new group with a decision expected in the next couple of weeks.

The film does not shoot until next January, but sources close to the situation say the reason for such an early decision has more to do with another “Star Wars” film currently shooting, rather than the untitled “Han Solo” pic. While insiders were unable to confirm, the new Solo could have a small cameo in “Rogue One: A Star Wars” before appearing in his own standalone pic.

“Rogue One” still has a month of shooting to go and is supposed to be set between “Episode III” and “Episode IV,” making this new Han Solo age appropriate for an appearance in the film. Disney and Marvel used the same strategy for their new Spider-Man by casting Tom Holland early in order for him to cameo in “Captain America: Civil War” before appearing in his own film.

With the exception of Eastwood, who’s 29, Disney and Lucasfilm seem to be zeroing in on actors between the ages of 20 to 25. The studios tested actors as young as 17 to as old as 34.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens stayed on top of the Japanese box office for the fourth weekend, bringing in another $5.3 million (￥420 million) on Saturday and Sunday.

The added figures for Monday — the "Coming of Age Day" holiday — brings total revenue in Japan to nearly $70 million (￥8.27 billion) from over 5.3 million tickets sold.

Force Awakens passed the ￥7 billion ($60 million) mark in 20 days in Japanese cinemas, three days faster than fellow Disney hit Frozen, which went on to earn a massive $250 million in Japan. While the Star Wars movie isn't destined to hit those numbers, it is now almost assured of crossing $100 million in Japan, an impressive feat.

The J.J. Abrams blockbuster is benefiting from higher-priced 3D, 4D and Imax tickets, as well as Japanese audiences' willingness to watch different versions of the film, including the dubbed and the English-language version. Tickets for 3D screenings in Tokyo can cost as much as $21 (￥2,500).

We finally know where Rey is, but that leaves another question for Star Wars fans to wrestle with for the next two years: Just who is Rey?

As we learned in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rey (Daisy Ridley) — if that is her real name — was abandoned as a child on the desert planet Jakku, and is quite powerful in the ways of the Force. All that skill raises the question of whether she could be related to another familiar face from the original trilogy.

Some fans suspect that Rey is actually a Skywalker, pointing to the fact that Luke (Mark Hamill) may have recognized her – or at least wasn’t surprised by her presence – in the final moments of Force Awakens. (More fuel for this theory: Rey was drawn to the lightsaber that belonged to Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker before winding up in her possession.) But another theory, posited by EW’s Anthony Breznican last summer and recently catching further fire online, speculates Rey could be a relative of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

So, how much does Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams actually know about Rey’s real identity? “I know quite a bit,” he told reporters at the Television Critics Association’s press tour on Tuesday. But the notoriously spoiler-phobic producer wasn’t about to spill it ahead of Episode VIII, which will be directed by Rian Johnson.

“Obviously it’s not for me to talk about in this moment because this is Rian’s story to continue now. The last thing I’m going to do is reveal something that he would be upset about. I want to make sure that Rian gets the courtesy that he showed me.”

One would think keeping a secret this monumental would be difficult for just about anyone in the world, but “not for me,” Abrams said with a laugh. Let’s not forget, this is the director who refused to reveal the antagonist in Cloverfield or Super 8 or Star Trek Into Darkness or… you get the point.

With that said, Abrams is just as excited about the next installment as the fans are. “My enthusiasm for Episode VIII is enormous,” he said. “I’m very much excited for and very jealous of anyone, especially Rian, who gets to work so closely with this extraordinary cast and crew, truly an amazing group. In that regard for sure, but I’m also relieved to have gotten a chance to do a Star Wars movie.”

And for those still mourning the loss of our favorite scruffy looking nerf herder, Abrams explained his reasoning behind that shocking moment with Han Solo (Harrison Ford). “We knew we needed to do something that was bold and maybe unexpected,” he said.

During TCA, Abrams also discussed his feelings about the lack of Rey merchandise, teased whether The Force Awakens will have deleted scenes or an extended cut, hinted that Harrison Ford should get an Oscar, said we shouldn’t expect a Felicity reboot, debuted the first trailer for his time-travel miniseries 11.22.63 and revealed his CBS drama Person of Interest was likely canceled after this season.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens DVD will have deleted scenes, but no extended cut

We got the scoop on J.J. Abrams’ plan for The Force Awakens on home video.

The director told EW there will not be an extended edition of his mega-hit Star Wars sequel.

But there will be some additional footage.

“There will be deleted scenes, but not an extended version,” Abrams told us after the panel for his upcoming Hulu series 11.22.63 at the Television Critics Association’s press tour in Beverly Hills on Saturday.

We also asked what the longest cut of the film was before he edited it down to two hours and 16 minutes for theatrical release.

“I don’t know what the longest cut was,” Abrams said. “Probably, if it were with credits, close to two hours and 50 minutes was the first cut.”

So unlike the first six Star Wars films, which were relentlessly and often controversially tinkered with by creator George Lucas, it sounds like Abrams expects to stick with the original theatrical cut. The director previously described a couple of the deleted scenes to EW, including a few that were teased in the film’s trailers.

Abrams has been indirectly quoted as being particularly excited about Rian Johnson’s script for Episode VIII. Speaking on Saturday, the director wouldn’t give specifics, even spoiler-free ones (“I wouldn’t want to do that because it’s not my movie to talk about”), but did express great interest in Johnson’s plans. “I will say that Ryan’s an amazing writer and director,” Abrams said of the Looper filmmaker. “I’m obviously really excited about what he’s going to do.”

Abrams was also asked about The Force Awakens’ record-breaking box office tally, becoming the highest-grossing domestic release of all time, with more than $770 million in ticket sales thus far.

“I’m grateful to anyone who has gone to see the movie,” Abrams said. “When I hear, anecdotally, people have gone seven or eight times. I just want to apologize to, I’m guessing, their parents.”

The director added that he was “very grateful” to fans and pleased the film is finally available for all to see.

“I can’t believe that it’s done,” Abrams said. “It was three years of very tense work by a lot of people. I’m just so happy that all the work that everyone did. Even the people who you don’t see in the movie – the puppeteers who were painted out, I watched them in 125-degree heat in Abu Dhabi bringing BB-8 to life, and then we mercilessly painted them out in the movie. I’m just so glad that people get to see all the work that this amazing cast and crew did. Whatever the numbers are, honestly I’m just so grateful the movie is out there and has been well received.”

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is poised to pass “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2” for the fifth spot on the list of top international box office grossers.

Disney’s space saga took in $11.5 million on Tuesday in foreign markets to lift its international total to $946.9 million — or $13.6 million behind the final Harry Potter movie. It edged past “Avengers: Age of Ultron” on Tuesday for the sixth position and should pass “Jurassic World” for the fourth spot at $1.02 billion by the end of the week.

“Furious 7” is third on the all-time international grosses list at $1.16 billion, topped by “Avatar” at $2.03 billion and “Titanic” at $1.53 billion.

“The Force Awakens” debuted in China on Saturday with a record $53 million and has added $12.4 million since then, making it the fifth-largest international territory in four days. The U.K. is the top foreign market with $162.5 million, followed by Germany with $95.5 million, France with $77.1 million and Japan with $69.4 million.

Disney has marketed “The Force Awakens” aggressively in China. Robots BB-8 and R2-D2, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, director J.J. Abrams and producer Kathleen Kennedy were all on hand at a Dec. 27 premiere in Shanghai.

The blockbuster took in $3.8 million on Monday in the U.S. to lift its 26-day total to $819.7 million. “The Force Awakens” has grossed $1.77 billion worldwide and trails only “Avatar” at $2.78 billion and “Titanic” at $2.19 billion.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is likely within one weekend of hitting $1 billion - in just the international box office market. The film pulled in a fresh $11.5 million on Tuesday overseas, bringing it to $946.9 million total in international theaters.

That puts Force Awakens at #6 all-time on that chart, beating out Avengers: Age of Ultron for the mark. It also puts it likely two days away from the top five, where it will pass Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 with $960.5 million. A solid second weekend in China should push it past $1 billion overseas.

On the domestic market, the film is now at $819.7 million. That is tops domestically all-time, of course, and continuing to grow. Even with inflation adjustments, which is far from a perfect science as it takes no other economic or competitive factors into account, Force is in the top 15, and within spitting distance of Avatar's adjusted total of around $837 million (unadjusted it topped at $760.5, long since passed). If the Force Awakens hits $1 billion in North American markets, it would be the first film to ever do so, and would put it at least at #9 on the inflation-adjusted list (the only film in the top 10 from this century, too).

Star Wars: The Force Awakens, as a reminder, has only been in theaters for four weekends, and not even a month yet. Avatar did 34 weekends, Titanic 41 weekends, Jurassic World did 23 (over the summer, a traditionally much more difficult timeframe as far as staying power goes), The Avengers did 22, Age of Ultron 23, and Furious 7 was on the low end of the spectrum at 11 weeks.

"I've seen all of the theories," the Jurassic World director, who will helm Episode IX despite any petitions demanding otherwise, told ET at the BAFTA Awards Season Tea Party on Saturday. "I have to practice how to answer these questions."

While Trevorrow’s installment won’t hit theaters until 2019, following Rain Johnson’s Episode XII and two anthology films, he told us that he is already thinking about how he will wrap up the sequel trilogy. “A lot of scribbling and a lot of notes thinking about the story that I want to tell,” he explained.

Which brings us back to those theories: Now that they have finally seen The Force Awakens, fans are busy speculating about the lineage of one character in particular, Rey (Daisy Ridley). Is she actually Rey Skywalker, daughter of Luke (Mark Hamill)? Or could she be Obi-Wan Kenobi's granddaughter?

"We're going to make sure that that answer is deeply and profoundly satisfying," Trevorrow promised, avoiding addressing any specific theory.

"Rey is a character that is important in this universe, not just in the context of The Force Awakens, but in the entire galaxy," he elaborated. "She deserves it. We'll make sure that that answer is something that feels like it was something that happened a long time ago, far away, and we're just telling you what happened."

That said, the 39-year-old director seemed to confirm that Rey’s father is, in fact, someone we have already met. “What's interesting is I'm not creating a host of new characters,” he revealed. “I have a lot of characters that people really love that we're going to make sure are all honored. No one's going to be left behind.”

Though he says he has yet to speak with original Star Wars stars Hamill and Carrie Fisher, Trevorrow wants their presence to be even greater in his film, revealing he can't wait "to find new places that we can take those characters."

"They are icons, but they're also people that have suffered tremendous loss and challenge over the course of all these films," he told us.

"[Episode IX] is something that needs to honor a story that's been told over a period of 40 years," he reiterated. "I don't want to ignore any of it, and I respect all of it. It's something I think the fan base is going to embrace."